I recently read Ready Player One and it had been a long time since I read book this fast and with such addiction. It´s a fiction novel written by Ernest Cline which managed to keep me hooked from the first to the last page thanks to all the references about movies, games, songs and books I know and which I enjoyed, and thanks to putting on paper things I imagined or dreamed with since I was little. I don´t want to make any important spoilers because I honestly can´t do more than recommend it over and over, but the following is a small summary which includes the essential information to know what the book is about.
Synopsis
The story in Ready Player One plays around and within OASIS, a hyper-realistic video game in which most of the worlds population immerses to escape from their miserable and poor lives. In this virtual reality anyone can be whatever he wants to be, and even the worlds economy develops inside this digital world. People have their jobs inside this game, their banks, and practically their whole lives. One morning it is announced that the creator of OASIS, James Halliday, has died, without any heirs, and in a video he made before dying he explains that he has hidden an Easter Egg in this virtual world and whoever finds it will inherit his whole fortune, including OASIS.
After this announcement so called Gunters or Egg Hunters start to appear dedicating their whole existence exclusively to study everything that exists about James Halliday and his hobbies, interests, favorite books, movies and video games just to find this Easter Egg. Wade Watts, the novels main character, is one of these people, and together with his OASIS friends he will try to find and pass the three necessary tests to find the egg before IOI, a big corporation that wants to take over OASIS by all means.
My opinion of Ready Player One
What else can I say apart from I loved it? Not much more. As I said at the beginning of the post, the book trapped me from the first to the last page and it had been very long since I liked a book this much and read through it so fast. I found the story very interesting thanks to the huge amount of references the author makes of other authors, books, movies, video games and songs I know and/or have seen (some example are J.R.R Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, Stephen King, Terry Pratchet, Space Invaders, Atari, Xbox, Apple, Galaga, Spiderman, Highlander, Indiana Jones, Everquest, Steven Spielberg, A Team, Godzilla, Fight Club, Star Trek, Star Wars, The Simpsons, He-Man, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mechagodzilla, Dungeons & Dragons, Cowboy Bebop, Blade Runner and a lot more).
Ready Player One is sincerely a book I can only recommend over and over to everyone who loves or likes the 80s, video games, movies, books or music, because just having a slight interest in any of these you will find references you know and which will probably make you love it and keep you reading.