Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline
5 out of 5 stars

You would think that an almost-400-page book about video games and 80s culture might get a little tedious. But you would be wrong. Very, very wrong. I have not been sucked into a book and so sorry it ended since I was 7 and reading The Boxcar Children. (And yes, they are VERY different, I’m just sayin’.) Once I got over the fact that all the cultural references to my misspent youth were being referred to as “classic” and “vintage,” I really, really enjoyed Ready Player One. The story is intriguing, the dialogue is good, detail and description are delicious, and the characters are believable…even Wade’s sidekicks are unique, which is kind of ironic since we spend most of our time with them (like Wade) as avatars in a virtual world. Though one reviewer described this is “nostalgia porn” (in a good way), even if you weren’t into John Hughes, Monty Python, video games, D&D or the arcade scene in general, I think you’ll STILL get a kick out of this book. If you *were* a total geek and know what a hit points are, play a mean game of Joust or owned a Commodore 64 GS, this book will be very, VERY validating for you. :-)

The OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) has changed the way people around the world live, because the real world in 2044, honestly, sucks. It’s going through everything we fear it will, including environmental, economic and social collapse; resource depletion; and political corruption. As one might expect, only the very rich are safe from that special kind of despair born of poverty and all loss of hope. Unless of course you can plug into the virtual existence known as the OASIS. Ahhhh… It’s aptly named, not just for its escape value, but because it’s the only way humans are able to cling to the things that make us human – individuality, creativity, and character, not to mention the ability to fantasize. And the OASIS is free! You can go to school there, party there, conduct business, hang glide or even get married to your avatar love interest there. Real estate, commerce, adventure, and more…it’s all waiting for you in the OASIS, which is how the company makes its money – selling property, avatar accessories, cars, weapons, spaceships, even planets, that are all nothing but zeros and ones. Brilliant.

However, the inventor of it all is dead, and he’s left his entire fortune as well as the future of his creation to the lucky player who can solve his three-tiered puzzle and find the ultimate Easter egg. The juxtaposition of the two worlds author Ernest Cline creates is really cool, and his attention to not just detail but the nuances of pop culture that give eras like the 80s their distinction is spot on. I have to say, I don’t even really *like* the 80s as a personal reference point, but because I grew up through them and did wear acid washed jeans (with pleats!), it’s hard not to feel a little nostalgic about a time when Rush 2112 was blasting out of my brother’s 8-track player, movies like War Games and Risky Business were hot, and Pac Man was a competitive sport. So an entire book set in the future with characters that have made it their life’s mission to know this time period better than those of us who lived through it? Really quite entertaining, frankly! Oh, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how despicable the villains are. Or how clever (spoiler alert?) our heroes are in prevailing. Oh come on, of course the good guys win! The fun is how they get there.

I alternated between reading and listening to RPO, and both experiences were grand. Reader Wil Wheaton does a bang-up job.