Genre: Science Fiction
Reading Level: Easy/Medium
Pages: 374
Similar Novels: Wool by Hugh Howey, Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson, Reamde by Neal Stephenson
Synopsis:
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? (Goodreads)
Opinion:
So… how to summarize this book? Amazing, is a good word. Awesome, is another. However, I think I’ll go with the epitome of a science fiction novel.
Oh my God – this book is so good. Wade is perfect – I kind of want to be him. Although, anti-social and game-addict… I think I might already be him.
Okay, so I know that I have to give this book a legitimate review, but I’m not sure where to start – it is so completely brilliant. I feel like Cline has taken everything I love, sort of, and put it into this amazing geeky book of nerdiness. And that’s a compliment.
You can totally tell that the author is a complete geek, and kind of stuck in the 80s – I mean, why otherwise write a book like this one. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, writers do tend to reveal a lot about themselves when they are writing, I’m just saying that it is what happened.
I also liked how imperfect all the characters were – yes, there was a really bad guy in the story, and yes, it had the traditional “hero” complex, but nobody was perfect.
I’m beginning to sense a recurring theme in my reviewing – if the characters are imperfect, I love them. It makes the story so… realistic. All of the imperfectness.
Anyway, back to review – I recommend this book to anyone who likes Sci-Fi – especially Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – and practically all ages. It’s not a super difficult read, but there is still some terminology and “stuff” that might be considered slightly more mature – aka, sex and feelings about sex, people.
But seriously, just a breathtaking read.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll enjoy this book as much as I did!
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Anybody else read Ready Player One and just loves it? Does anybody hate it? Let me know in the comments section below!
The Thoughts of a Nerd Girl 