Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
If you played coin-op/early generation video games and/or dabbled in D&D games as a kid (I did both) - or at least have an appreciation for these nostalgic items (I do) - you'll undoubtedly LOVE this book. Maybe you dig 80s movies like "Wargames" or you have always bopped along to the music of that era (me like both). If so, this book is for you. Do you like the band Rush (not so much for me)? Then you'll flip for this book! Author Ernest Cline is an enthusiast for all those things plus way deeper, older, more obscure comics, tunes, cartoons, Japanese anime, and other 80s stuff you and I have never heard of. He expertly folds and stirs every element together into a fantastic book. To really enjoy it, though, you have to have some bit of love for these pop-culture icons of a bygone era. If not, you will be, like, so annoyed by Ready Player One.

In the story, Wade Watts is an 18 yr old boy who's struggling through a poverty level existence in the year 2044. His real life is pretty bleak but luckily, he can always escape to the OASIS. The OASIS is basically the "Matrix" in reverse. A virtual, online world where everyone chooses to spend as much time as possible since life there is much more tolerable than the actual world. Wade and billions of others from around the globe live in the OASIS as avatars; so they can appear, speak, and behave as they want to and not as they really are. In this fantasy world, Wade's avatar is a tough-guy warrior/wizard named Parzival.

All is relatively normal until one day, a man named James Halliday (the creator of the OASIS), dies unexpectedly. To mark his passing, he launches a quest, within the OASIS, to discover a hidden treasure. Whoever finds it will win a pretty rad prize: Halliday's multi-billion dollar fortune and his complete control over the OASIS! Naturally, everyone joins in. The quest requires people to know all about Halliday's life and his favorite things; which happen to be 80s era comics, movies, games, music, and the like. So Parzival (Wade) becomes the ultimate Halliday expert as he dedicates his life to searching for the ultimate prize. It's a wild, exciting, imaginative, action-packed journey and with the help of a few friends (they only know each other in the OASIS, which is intriguing), Parzival leads the way in the quest. However, at every step, he butts heads with an evil corporation that's trying all the dirty tricks in the book - both in AND outside of the OASIS - to win and take over the world.

The main thing to know about Ready Player One is the 80s pop-culture references are absolutely everywhere. At first, I have to admit that all the movie, music and game references were a tad bit annoying. But at about a third of the way through, I became so wrapped up in the story and Wade's quest, I stopped noticing them and everything just clicked perfectly. I guess it was almost as if I'd slipped into the virtual OASIS and all I could think about was if/how Wade/Parzival was going to win. It also became fun to note how many of the writer's references I could recognize. As it turned out, there were many more I didn't know! Mr. Cline is a certifiable expert on the 80s and as I mentioned before, he goes so deep and so obscure into that decade's rich history of stuff, it's nearly unbelievable. His passion really makes the book fully immersive and thoroughly enjoyable. In fact, I burned through the last 200 pages or so in one two hour sitting, unable to stop reading!

I can’t over-emphasize this - I'm a big enough 80s movie fan and video game lover to appreciate the nuances of the story. If you aren’t, you’ll be annoyed. Even though I'd never played or heard of a lot of the things he mentions, I still loved those parts because just imagining myself INSIDE a computer game, playing it as the character, was awesome. Plus there's so much other cool stuff that Wade/Parzival gets to do (beyond video games and D&D) that again, even if you don't love the specific movie, music, or thing being referenced, the IDEA of whatever's happening locks you in.

Overall, Cline's obsessive knowledge of the era drives the ultra-cool plot and his stunningly creative imagination makes the whole book amazing. The different aspects of Halliday's massive quest are simply fascinating and the subplots that happen in the real world, outside of the OASIS, are spectacular too. There's some cursing in the book and a fair amount of mild violence but nothing too overly sexual or offensive. Still, I'd say it's a book best saved for more mature readers. Unless you are a parent who's really into 80s culture. If so, read Ready Player One right now - you'll love it! And then you can decide if you want to share it with your kids or others. This would give you the fun experience of connecting with them over some of your favorite old things. I'd say that most people who read this book check prices on eBay of old Ataris and Nintendos as they think, 'Man it would sure be a blast to play “Pitfall!” with my 8 yr old!'

Happy reading....and happy gaming!

To learn just how 80s obsessed Cline is, check out his website!