Ready Player One - Review and summary

Too Long; Didn't Read

Ready Player One is a headlong, at-times-nostalgic adventure deep inside a virtual reality world that's full of '80s pop culture. It revolves around Wade Watts, a teenage gunter in search of an Easter egg hidden within the OASIS, which is a universe of virtual reality. The stakes are vast, with the winner inheriting a vast fortune and actual control over the OASIS itself. What Wade has to fight against, therefore, is quite a challenge: alliances in a race against time while fighting corporate greed.

You Need to Read This Book If:

• You're a Junkie for '80's Pop Culture (Music, Movies, Video Games).
• You were into science fiction and virtual reality type adventures.
• You love underdog stories where people are pitted against really powerful forces or entities.
• You're really interested in the future implications of virtual reality on society.
• You enjoy a good puzzle or mystery.

Find the books on Amazon here.

Rating

Overall: 9/10

New Learnings: 8/10

Would Read Again?: 8/10

Ready Player One Book Review by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One takes the reader into a world as it would be in the year 2045-depending on the outcome of things-as Ernest Cline reveals it. The world has become very hostile, and to most people, the only means of escape is an extensive virtual reality universe known as the OASIS where one could become or do anything. When the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, dies, he leaves behind his vast fortune to whoever first manages to find a hidden Easter egg inside the simulation. The race becomes global, as people start to devote their lives to its completion.

Wade Watts is another gunter, our main protagonist, enamored with the notions of how to leave the bleak reality living in the poverty-stricken "stacks" of Oklahoma City. The search for Halliday's egg becomes his obsession, like his way out to a better life. The deeper Wade pursues the Hunt, the more he uncovers clues that take him through a maze of '80s pop culture allusions, from classic video games to iconic movies. It is almost jackpot nostalgia—really, a love letter to the decade that prospered in Halliday's life.

But Ready Player One is so much more than just aائيةage trip down memory lane. It is at its core a story of friendship, perseverance, and fighting corporate greed. Wade joins forces with other "gunters" like the mysterious Art3mis, and together they square off against the formidable Innovative Online Industries, which plans to corner the market in the OASIS for its own good. One of the themes of this novel is the danger that could result from virtual reality if some corporations were to take advantage of people's wanton behavior online and manipulate them to serve their interest.

Cline writes at a very breakneck and engaging pace, with action, humor, and heart. The character development is full of life, replete with different eccentricities and motives. It's not just an adventure for the sake of finding the egg; Wade's journey is one of self-discovery, finding out where he stands in a world seemingly moving on without him.

It is a satisfying and thought-provoking ending that raises real questions as to reality, the power of the virtual world, and human connection. What's real; what's an illusion? Can we really flee our problems just by entering Virtual Reality? And what happens when the lines between the virtual and real start to get blurred?

Actionable takeaways

In Ready Player One, Wade Watts's encyclopedic knowledge of the pop culture of the 1980s is not just a quirkiness of the character, but something that will enable him to succeed in that very high-stakes treasure hunt contained within the OASIS. This underlines the message of the novel: our passions are important, however obscure or niche they may seem. Wade's winning should serve as evidence of the power of individuality and attention to often peculiar issues in a world that otherwise tries to drive us towards fitting in; it shows that our identity can be steeped in huge surprises.

This is also reflected in Wade's journey, so full of collaboration. From lone gun to finally learning that it was impossible to win the Hunt alone, he came to realize he had to bend a little and make use of friends with diverse skills and knowledge to help him rise to the many challenges thrown his way. This exemplifies that together we can do powerful stuff, that our individual strengths combined really can achieve extraordinary results.

Finally, the novel is a warning regarding corporate greed if it goes amok. The relentless pursuit by Innovative Online Industries for profit at the cost of OASIS users is a really nasty forecast of a future that wants virtual worlds to be controlled and manipulated by very strong corporations. This storyline was meant to light, therefore, thoughts in readers as to what happens when people come second to profit and actions that must be undertaken in keeping virtual places safe from misuse.

Related Books

If you enjoyed Ready Player One, you might also like:

• Armada by Ernest Cline
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• The Martian by Andy Weir