Jim's Books

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline

Ready Player One
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ISBN: 9780099560432

Description

It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty, and disease are widespread.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who died with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late twentieth century. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.

Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.

Reviewed on 11th September 2016

The debut novel from Ernest Cline, though the second of his that I've read, is currently being turned into a film by Steven Spielberg, and it's clear to see why. This is a fantastically rich novel, full of cult references to the early days of computer gaming and the eighties and nineties, that also tells a strong adventure story in a really compelling way.

The cast of characters are very compelling and it's really easy to identify with the main character and his relationships with the world, the computers, and the other characters - he reminded me a lot of Harry Potter in some ways, being slightly bland so you can cast your perspective easily into his head, but also by being the complete accidental hero.

I think what I enjoyed most in this novel though was the worldbuilding. From the post-apocalyptic future of RL to the virtual worlds that the characters visit, Cline has constructed an environment for his story that is amazingly rich and detailed and entirely believable.

It's a great novel and truly deserving of being made into a film by the best filmmakers there are. I look forward to a line continuing to produce amazing novels and will certainly be close to the front of the queue for them.

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