Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline            Audio Book:  15 hours, 40 mins      Mass Market Paperback:  608 pages                     

Excellent book!   I highly recommend it.   The story takes place in 2044 and the earth and its people have gone through a lot with financial crises, global warming crises, food shortages, living space shortages due to lack of funds, society is creeping very rapidly toward a Mad Max-like existence.   Trailer parks are no longer one story structures, but now, huge cranes pile trailers one on top of the other rising high up into the sky and these are stacked in the tough neighborhoods where the renters can barely afford them and many people will live together in one and share the costs.   A Steve Jobs like character named James Halliday has created an escape – a virtual reality getaway he named, “The Oasis.”    The gamers love it.   The Oasis can become pretty much anything you want it to be and everyone is anonymous because the real person is sitting home in their living space while their avatars are out on the town having any number of adventures in the virtual realm.   The best players gain notoriety and our hero, Wade Watts falls madly in love with another gamer he has never seen, but, admires for her skill at gaming and he ends up falling for her because they form a bond through their online anonymous friendship.   Lots of good storyline.  The designer of the OASIS dies and in his will he tells the world that he has spread keys throughout the Galaxies and planets contained in the OASIS and the person who finds the 3 keys and unlocks the mystery will inheirit his amazing fortune (billions of dollars) and will also inheirit the OAISS.    The race is on as gamers from all over the world try to solve the riddles and puzzles to capture the keys and become sole owner.    James Halliday grew up in the 1980s and there are so many 80s references to t.v. shows, celebrities, ,songs and musical artists who were big at the time, special references to movies and kids shows and particularly referenced are all of the early computer games with multitudinous references to the video games played in the 1980s.   What a fun ride through Nostalgia Land this book is.   Really fun remembering playing many of the classic games, myself.     This sci-fi utopia where everything is done via computer and life can be as many different adventures as a person can stay awake for.    Many gamers keep playing for hours even when their bodies are trying to rebel but it is GAME ON!   And many play till they literally drop from exhaustion.    Well told story and when the incredible fortune is at stake and the entire world seems to be avataring up to compete – it is like Harry Potter playing Quiddatch at warp speed.    What a fun ride.   Reader, you will be so caught up in this sci-fi fantasy, you won’t want it to end.    The anonymous relationships formed are intriguing as you can see a lot of what goes on actually happening today as scientists in our real world wonder where the population will be in another 20 years because with the internet and social websites people are staying home more and forming friendships and even romances in cyberspace and sometimes the people never actually meet in person but go through all the motions in their cyber communications.    It is a fascinating look at where life could feasibly go one day though to have all the cool tools, I think it would take more than 2044 to get us there, but, who knows?   Maybe by 2088 we could be downloading things directly into our brains and learn languages and entire courses of study just by plugging our brains in – literally.    There is also a Steve Wozniak type character named Og who plays a big role in this fantasy adventure.   Great characters, great story with many references to everything from Star Trek and its many spinoff to Star Wars and everything in between.    Really excellent story you won’t want to put down even if you are not a sci-fier at heart, there is so much going on – romance – dysfunctional families, global communications and corporate greed to the point of murder!   You will be so entertained by this story you will be treating yourself by reading it.  This book rates all the stars in the OASIS galaxy.   Terrific job Ernest Cline.