Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)

by Ernest Cline

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

“Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly

A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. 

Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly San Francisco Chronicle Village Voice Chicago Sun-Times iO9 The AV Club

“Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”HuffPost

“An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN

“A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”Boston Globe

“Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR

“[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”iO9

Reviewed by Rinn on

5 of 5 stars

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Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

This book. This book. I've never read anything so completely geeky, so packed full of pop culture references - whilst being so, so good.

As someone who relied on an online game, and the people I met on it, to get through a very tough two years, this book really resonated with me. Wade escapes into the OASIS because his real life is dreary, he lives in poverty - and the OASIS is the only way he can attend school. Even though he is poor and low-levelled in the game, life in there is better than life 'out there'. And with his great knowledge of 80's pop culture - an obsession of James Halliday's - he starts working out clues for the location of the keys.

Normally, I would get annoyed at the amount of pop culture references thrown at me in a book. But they are so fundamentally part of the story here, and it is amazing that, with the amount of references there actually are, very few feel just chucked in for the sake of it. Practically every single one has some sort of meaning. And I am incredibly impressed by the amount of research Cline must have done, and how clearly passionate he is about that period in time.

The first half of the book or so goes past without much major action, but the story still flows well and is - most importantly of all - just great fun. Whether it is the way Cline writes, or the references to games, films etc that many readers will know and love, the whole story just seems so vivid and easily imaginable. Trying to work the clues out was fun - and I was so proud of myself when I instantly guessed the meaning of the clue for the Jade Key (hint: it helps to love your sci-fi!) - ages before Wade worked it out. [if you really want to see the spoiler, then click here]

All the characters felt pretty well-rounded, and there were some nice character 'twists'. Wade starts out as a bit of sloppy, lazy boy, but develops into a determined young man, training himself both physically and mentally. Whilst he initially seems a bit of a wimp, he later proves to be a truly courageous in a moment of very risky espionage.

If you are a gamer, a fan of science fiction/fantasy, or 80s pop culture, then I cannot stress it enough: read this book. Unfortunately, what makes this book such a fantastic read for one group of people will most likely completely isolate it from non-gamers. But as a gamer myself, that doesn't apply to me - and for that, I am glad.

Review also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

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  • 20 July, 2017: Finished reading
  • 20 July, 2017: Reviewed
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  • 20 July, 2017: Reviewed