Ready Player One

Posted On May 10, 2015

Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline

In the future of 2044, most of the world is in an energy crisis with rolling power outages for most folks and a dismal life in general with the exception of the few that have money. One thing that everyone does have is free access to the OASIS, which is a virtual reality world created by a guy who grew up in the 1980s and loves that decade. When the creator dies, he leaves his entire fortune to the one person who can solve his extremely difficult puzzles. Regular people, gamers, and corporations all jump in to try to solve where the prize could be waiting for them. Those that have an advantage are the ones that also have a love for all things 80s.

I found this book a quick read and highly entertaining. I think it would be for anyone that grew up in the 1980s and loves everything pop culture from that decade including the music, movies, video games, D&D, arcade games, and more. It will also appeal to anyone that is really into gaming from roleplaying games to online games to anything close to virtual reality. I am guessing the only people that will not find anything entertaining about this book are people that don’t fall into one of those categories. This book does not offer you anything.

It isn’t the best written book. The characters are not the most well written, but this is a book about moving the plot forward and it does that very well. It does not stop and ponder too hard on anything because there is another puzzle to solve! It is also the first book by Ernest Cline so I can only imagine his writing can improve, but I do appreciate his adoration for the 1980s. It is like a love letter to that decade and it’s a really fun one.