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 …
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
While not the best writing in the world, I really enjoyed this book. It was like a great walk down memory lane. all the games and movies I grew up with. Even talked thru so many of the computers I owned and grew up with. what a blast!!
While not the best writing in the world, I really enjoyed this book. It was like a great walk down memory lane. all the games and movies I grew up with. Even talked thru so many of the computers I owned and grew up with. what a blast!!
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Meh. The book could have used another round of editing. The whole thing felt like a 16-hour-long "nerdsturbation" with one of those orgasms at the end that make you regret the efforts you put into it.
Meh. The book could have used another round of editing. The whole thing felt like a 16-hour-long "nerdsturbation" with one of those orgasms at the end that make you regret the efforts you put into it.
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is light, almost fluffy reading, but above all, it is incredibly fun reading. I think in order to fully appreciate this book the reader needs to meet one major condition: a) enjoy video games. If this condition is met, there are further conditions that can enhance the enjoyment: b) having grown up in the 80s and c) having played arcade video games. Also probably d) love old Japanese anime like Supaidaman and e)a sweeping love for anything related to SF and fantasy etc.
Lucky for me I grew up in the 80s and have played a couple arcade games, and I generally do enjoy me some video games. The story is set about 40 years ahead in the future, in a world with no oil left, where people are poor and flee into OASIS which is basically a virtual reality version of what we know as MMOs today. They …
This is light, almost fluffy reading, but above all, it is incredibly fun reading. I think in order to fully appreciate this book the reader needs to meet one major condition: a) enjoy video games. If this condition is met, there are further conditions that can enhance the enjoyment: b) having grown up in the 80s and c) having played arcade video games. Also probably d) love old Japanese anime like Supaidaman and e)a sweeping love for anything related to SF and fantasy etc.
Lucky for me I grew up in the 80s and have played a couple arcade games, and I generally do enjoy me some video games. The story is set about 40 years ahead in the future, in a world with no oil left, where people are poor and flee into OASIS which is basically a virtual reality version of what we know as MMOs today. They go to school there, live there lives there, and level their characters to be super-powerful. When the founder of OASIS dies, he leaves behind a riddle that leads to an Easter Egg he planted in OASIS, and whoever finds it first, will inherit all of his wealth. Around the world, the hunt for the egg begins. The protagonist of Ready Player One is Wade, an 18 year old boy who lives in a trailer park in Oklahoma. In the OASIS he is known as Parzival, and he is one of thousands of 'gunters', short for egg hunters. When he is the first one to make any progress in the egg hunt after years of the hunt being in progress, his life spirals out of control, as he has to try to stay ahead of fellow gunters, especially Art3mis, and the evil corporation IOI who is trying to take control of the OASIS and turn it into a profit business.
It's not a long book and it's compelling enough to be a very fast read. I had a fantastic, enjoyable time reading it. Interestingly enough, everytime I tweeted a Goodreads update on my reading progress, people would get back to me how much they loved this book though they usually don't read much. It's that kind of a book. For me it's mandatory nerd reading, just like Chuck is mandatory nerd watching for me. Thumbs up from this nerd!
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Very geeky/nerdy book chock full of references to stuff I love. Great story, though if there's one thing I would nitpick, is that sometimes seeing so many geektastic references piled together in certain parts of the book almost seemed like the author was trying to add them for the sake of adding them, as if he were checking off a list. But OTOH, Halliday was obsessive about this stuff, so it makes sense to the story to do so. A part of me just felt ever so slightly annoyed by the sheer amount of geeky references. But it certainly wasn't a dealbreaker. Highly recommended reading for children of the 80s. :-)
Very geeky/nerdy book chock full of references to stuff I love. Great story, though if there's one thing I would nitpick, is that sometimes seeing so many geektastic references piled together in certain parts of the book almost seemed like the author was trying to add them for the sake of adding them, as if he were checking off a list. But OTOH, Halliday was obsessive about this stuff, so it makes sense to the story to do so. A part of me just felt ever so slightly annoyed by the sheer amount of geeky references. But it certainly wasn't a dealbreaker. Highly recommended reading for children of the 80s. :-)
Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I really enjoyed this book. It's basically a nostalgia fest from beginning to end, and if you were born sometime in the early 1980's or a little earlier you're going to adore it.
To be honest, if you took away the constant geek 80's references you'd have a fairly weak book. It was fun, but thinking back on it, I can't say that its left much of an impression.
I really enjoyed this book. It's basically a nostalgia fest from beginning to end, and if you were born sometime in the early 1980's or a little earlier you're going to adore it.
To be honest, if you took away the constant geek 80's references you'd have a fairly weak book. It was fun, but thinking back on it, I can't say that its left much of an impression.
