{Review} Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Release Date: Aug 16 /2011
Publisher: Random House

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?

You can find quotes of Ready Player One here.

Ready Player One made it onto my favorites list. It reminded me of my favorite book/anime, Sword Art Online. It's a great sci-fi story that reminds me what it is that I love when I started reading.

Wade Watts is a great main character. He's the one who found the first key in a long time. Everyone who hunts for the final prize are called the gunters. The adventure totally cracks me up and never lost my interest the entire way. You see this decayed world that depends on the virtual reality called the OASIS. This futuristic world where every kid worships Halliday and knows everything about the 80's. That's what it takes to be able to win the prize, after all.

The side characters were also really well-developed. They helped and provided a challenge to Wade. They weren't flat and they all have different personalities. The OASIS was really well-developed as well. It doesn't just happen, the book actually explains what it was, how it was developed and how it can be used. The explanation of the situation that the world was in never bored me. The OASIS was described really well and I could almost imagine all the possibilities with that virtual reality.

Although I never knew anything about the 80's, I found it really refreshing to learn all about it. Wade literally knows everything about the 80's. He has studied it like it's the bible. I found it really interesting to learn about and would love to know more about the 80's.

The only concern that I have is that the beginning is a bit slow. I pulled through since I was really interested for the story to progress. Some people that don't like long lengthy explanations might not like it and that might prevent them from getting the full experience.

Ready Player One is an absolutely stunning read and it has given me the possibility of a whole new world. I never thought for a moment that this was boring and this is a fantastic book you won't be able to put down.

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