Ready Player One by Ernest Kline.
READY PLAYER ONE BY ERNEST KLINE.
Why did it take me so long to read this book?!
AHH! I am so in love with this book, I could read it over and over again! But alas, I had to return it to my library. That just means another reader can be sucked into this book the same way I was!
Where do I even begin?
This novel is about Wade Watts (a.k.a. Parzival), an average teenager living in the year 2044. The earth is full of widespread poverty and food shortages. Climbing temperatures and global warming don't make the situation any better. So what does everyone do? They escape to the OASIS, of course! The OASIS is a virtual reality game created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow. In the OASIS, you can do practically whatever you desire, and you can be whoever you want to be. You can go to school here, or you could even get a job! This game has become such a widespread phenomenon that it made the creators multi-billionaires. Everyone plays it to get away from the hardships of life.
Then, James Halliday dies.
He has no family or heirs to his fame and fortune. As a result, on the day he dies, he releases a video announcing a contest. In the OASIS, he hid three keys that unlock three gates. Inside the final gate is his "Easter egg." Whoever finds it first inherits his fortune and controls the OASIS. He leaves one riddle for at the end of the video for everyone to begin the "hunt."
People become obsessed with finding the first key. They begin analyzing Halliday's video frame-by-frame and studying every aspect of his life. In fact, Halliday absolutely loved the 1980s and its culture, and suddenly, everyone else started loving it to for the sake of the contest.
Years pass, and no one can find the first key at all.
You see, the OASIS is so vast. It's full of thousands of planets and universes, the first key could virtually be anywhere. The Hunt for Halliday's Easter egg became somewhat of an urban legend.
That is, until Wade Watts stumbles upon it.
Wade has no money, barely has a family, and spends most of his time studying Halliday's life and 80s pop culture. He wants to find the first key just as bad as everyone else. He has a knack for repairing computers and OASIS consoles and for mastering video games. However, because he's so poor, he doesn't have any money to spare to spend in the OASIS. So he's just a level 3 avatar stuck on the same planet that he goes to school on because he can't afford to travel anywhere else in the game. So, why does he (of all people) suddenly discover the key?
Throw in a best friend named Aech (pronounced "H"), strong female gamer known as Art3mis, a few plot twists, some romance, and loads of geekery, and you've got yourself a killer novel!
But it's not just all fun and games. There's people in the OASIS that would kill for the egg. These people are known as the Sixers. They're employed by the Innovative Online Industries, the world's largest internet provider. Their ultimate goal is to win Halliday's fortune for their own corporate gain, and they do anything to get their hands on it.
For the love of all things nerdy, please pick up a copy of Ready Player One at your local bookstore or library. I still cannot believe it took me this long to read it. I couldn't put it down. I read it in like three days. Ernest Kline does such a beautiful job at describing a wonderful and intriguing virtual reality that seems just beyond our reach. Reading it honestly made me feel like I was binge watching a really addictive television show. This novel made me want to read more books. This was the first book I actually read for pleasure and on my own time, and it truly made me fall in love with reading again.
