Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

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

My Review:

I loved this book. I've been avoiding everyone's reviews until I could write my own, so it would not be influenced by anyone else's opinions. I was somewhat surprised and happy that Ernest Cline made Wade Watts the stereotypical computer nerd. Not necessarily attractive, somewhat smart, and completely geeky. I love who he became throughout the book. He was forced into a situation where he had to change or die, and it wasn't just change for the better, he could have totally changed for the worst.

There was a lot of twists and turns throughout the story, many cliffhangers, and a roller coaster of climaxes. Cline's style of writing made it so I felt like I was there, completely getting lost in the text. He creates a uptopia in the OASIS, but just like many morals to many stories, the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

I'm sad to say this review is much shorter than it would have been had I wrote it immediately following, but I didn't ☹ . I was reeling too much following the conclusion and wanted time to process, however, I waited too long. I would recommend this book if you are interested in a fun and fast-paced story about nerdom and the future, or if you are a complete 80's buff. Any reason you choose to read this, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did ☺.

Favorite Quotes:

“People who live in glass houses should shut the fuck up.”

“You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever.”

“Going outside is highly overrated.”

“Virtual sex, no matter how realistic, was really nothing but glorified, computer-assisted masturbation.”

“One person can keep a secret, but not two.”

“No one in the world gets what they want and that is beautiful.”

Read from September 10 to 29, 2015

Top 5 Genres*: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction/Dystopia, Young Adult, Fantasy
*According to Goodreads
_________________________
★★★★★ - I absolutely loved it
★★★★ - Good book and would recommend
★★★ - Decent book, but wasn't spectacular
★★ - Not good, but was able to finish it
★ - Did not finish (DNF) and I don't usually rate a book I haven't finished (just to be fair to the author)

View all my reviews