I recently finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline after hearing a rave review on one of my favorite book podcasts: http://booksonthenightstand.com/.
Ready Player One is set in a bleak future. The plot is centered inside the alternate reality OASIS, a sensory-oriented, 3D video game that most of the world chooses to inhabit. When creator James Halliday dies, he announces a quest that will determine who inherits OASIS, along with his vast fortune. It’s a sort of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory scenario; if you find his secretly embedded clues and pass the tests, you are worthy of the inheritance.
This is an adventure quest on and about video games. Note: I am not a gamer. I attempted to play a video game once. I have no idea which game it was because I had no idea what was going on. By attempted to play, I mean I tried to move my avatar and got stuck in the corner of a tiny digital room while hearing echoes of other, non-stuck players fighting. I think I was supposed to be shooting something, but I just started muttering about how silly this was and how in the world was I supposed to go anywhere if I couldn’t get out of this stupid corner? My friends thought it was hilarious, but I found the experience extremely frustrating. That being said…
I started reading Ready Player One and couldn’t put it down. It’s a love story; it’s a science-fiction novel; there’s a lot of nerdy ’80s trivia, and some spectacularly creative world-building.
Ready. Set. Read it.
annahenke 