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 …
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?
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
GRIPPING. Absolutely gripping. I couldn't put it down. This is not a book for young adults, but if you have any interest in video game culture and history at all, you should read this.
Also, it's thrilling. The review on my copy said "Willy Wonka meets Harry Potter," and it's true. They're protecting the world they love and bringing others to justice. They're chasing clues and scavenging items. They're marching through a nearly-real manifestation of the 1980s and commenting on its effects on the modern world.
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Ready Player One is a celever romp through 80's geek culture, set in a moderately interesting world. While I was moved to finish it, I'm not sure how it will stand the test of time. In tone, it reminded me of Redshirts by Scalzi, which I think did a better job of integrating the nostalgic material into the story.
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This was a very enjoyable and fast read. It had the same vibe as Little Brother (although LB has more political/ philosophical weight) with a protagonist who is uber-smart, geeky and struggling against social inequity and 'forces of darkness'. The adventures and puzzles he faces and the solutions he comes up with are all very satisfying and I didn't mind that it side-stepped the problem of how to fix up the real world portrayed in the book. Oh and for a person like me 'of a certain age' I loved all the Eighties references, in fact I'm digging out my DVD of War Games right now...
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I was really looking forward to this. A lot of reviewers gave this really high marks, but I'm terribly unimpressed. The writing style is similar to much of the YA stuff out there, which isn't a good thing. Why would a YA book be written with cultural references which are from the decade before YAs were even born? I'm only halfway through, though, and I'm really hoping that it gets better. It seems like a quickly thrown together story with a lot of retro name dropping, but none of the 80s references are clever. Usually, it's just listing authors, movies or songs. It is impossible to suspend disbelief enough to get past the sloppy parts. How could the hero read every book by every author, see every episode of every TV show, watch every movie - multiple times, in many cases. Some throwaway comments like personal computer storage that holds …
I was really looking forward to this. A lot of reviewers gave this really high marks, but I'm terribly unimpressed. The writing style is similar to much of the YA stuff out there, which isn't a good thing. Why would a YA book be written with cultural references which are from the decade before YAs were even born? I'm only halfway through, though, and I'm really hoping that it gets better. It seems like a quickly thrown together story with a lot of retro name dropping, but none of the 80s references are clever. Usually, it's just listing authors, movies or songs. It is impossible to suspend disbelief enough to get past the sloppy parts. How could the hero read every book by every author, see every episode of every TV show, watch every movie - multiple times, in many cases. Some throwaway comments like personal computer storage that holds "3 digital copies of everything in existence" are just.... Gaaaah! I just don't have words for it. Oh well, to each his own, right? I'm glad that so many people enjoyed the book, I just wish I could be a part of it!
Edit: I'm done. I can't change my score... It just wasn't a very good book. It really didn't seem like the book was planned. A lot of things appeared as afterthoughts. For example, the main character got into a scrape with the police. All of a sudden, he explains how the police were about to break down the door, but he didn't mention that he installed a metal cage around his apartment just in case the police would try to break in. No mention of it until this point. He needed to jump or fly to get to a high spot and asked his friends if they had any items to help. His friend had some shoes that could make the wearer fly - but they were never mentioned before or after. The whole book was like this. It Really came off as amateurish. If it wasn't for the retro 80s references, this book would not be popular.
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
this one was hard for me to rate. for the most part I enjoyed it, and all of the retro references were fun, but as a whole it fell a bit flat for me. way too much exposition for my taste, I think...
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A mix of the near-future dystopian and the near-past nostalgic with a good dose of wish fulfillment thrown in. The author is to be praised for the amount of research that was required to inject all the geeky details throughout.
