Ready Player One

A great nostalgic romp through the past, the present and, perhaps a not too distant future. It points out what's wrong with our global culture today in a way that brings back the hope we had growing up in the 70's and 80's. It reinvigorates a faith in the goodness of humanity in spite of our current mistakes and failings. And it points out the absolute value of charity towards one another. And it shows how we know all this; we learned it all growing up but forgot it being part of the rat race or being run over by it.

It's full of Easter eggs from pop culture and the best ones are those he brings up without pointing them out, leaving the reader to notice them.

For anyone who is nostalgic about the late 70's and 80's and the tabletop role-playing game that spawned many others and computer games and movies to follow, you'll see just how deeply Dungeons and Dragons has shaped our culture.

There was one point in this novel where I was grinding my teeth. It was spelled out for the characters how to find the Jade Key to go further in their treasure hunt, and somehow I got it in an instant and those ubergeeks who knew everything about the creator of the treasure hunt and his way of thinking keep on missing it for weeks. Old run-down house and collecting trophies! How hard can it be?!

Which means most likely that I am a bit too geeky in some way. At least I can't quote WarGames from memory, but at least the Monty Python challenge later would have been able for me.

Ready Player One is about a treasure hunt in a virtual reality (OASIS) which by the point when the novel takes place has taken over all other MMORPGs and works as most peoples' workplace, school, entertainment, and what-have-you. There is a reason for this of course: the real world is rife with hunger and desperation, slavery has been reintroduced by way of indentures for debtors, gasoline has run out so quickly that whole streets are filled with useless cars, and trailer parks have grown into stacks of trailers all over each other. There is a good reason why the people in this world prefer the virtual reality to their own. And then the founder of OASIS dies and leaves a game as an inheritance: a treasure hunt inside OASIS, whoever manages it will gain control over the company; in end effect whoever wins will be the richest person in the world.
This leads to a subculture called the gunters who hunt for this treasure, and for a revival of 1980s pop culture (because the hints for this treasure hunt are made up of obscure pop culture references). And then nothing happens for a few years, until the main character (a kid from the stacks with a pithy 3rd level avatar called Parzival), manages to get on the high score board as its first entry.

The book reads like a well-written 1980s adventure movie, and it is easy to imagine all the different characters and places described in it by virtue of them being references to 1980s American culture. Sometimes these references are laid on a bit thick, but in most places they read just fine. The issue with the plot is that the reverence it gives to 1980s movies also extends to itself: there were barely any surprises in there, all the plot turns and twists were visible from far ahead, and it was sometimes a bit too clear when something would happen, even if I didn't know what exactly it would be. In the end the moral of the story is that not everything can be online, and that there must be a real world for people as well, which is just such a 1980s cartoon moral. Of course its fitting.

The novel might not be the classic that it has been heralded as (I gather most of the reviewers are from the same generation that is celebrated in it), but its a nice, fast science-fiction adventure.

This is light, almost fluffy reading, but above all, it is incredibly fun reading. I think in order to fully appreciate this book the reader needs to meet one major condition: a) enjoy video games. If this condition is met, there are further conditions that can enhance the enjoyment: b) having grown up in the 80s and c) having played arcade video games. Also probably d) love old Japanese anime like Supaidaman and e)a sweeping love for anything related to SF and fantasy etc.

Lucky for me I grew up in the 80s and have played a couple arcade games, and I generally do enjoy me some video games. The story is set about 40 years ahead in the future, in a world with no oil left, where people are poor and flee into OASIS which is basically a virtual reality version of what we know as MMOs today. They go to school there, live there lives there, and level their characters to be super-powerful. When the founder of OASIS dies, he leaves behind a riddle that leads to an Easter Egg he planted in OASIS, and whoever finds it first, will inherit all of his wealth. Around the world, the hunt for the egg begins. The protagonist of Ready Player One is Wade, an 18 year old boy who lives in a trailer park in Oklahoma. In the OASIS he is known as Parzival, and he is one of thousands of 'gunters', short for egg hunters. When he is the first one to make any progress in the egg hunt after years of the hunt being in progress, his life spirals out of control, as he has to try to stay ahead of fellow gunters, especially Art3mis, and the evil corporation IOI who is trying to take control of the OASIS and turn it into a profit business.

It's not a long book and it's compelling enough to be a very fast read. I had a fantastic, enjoyable time reading it. Interestingly enough, everytime I tweeted a Goodreads update on my reading progress, people would get back to me how much they loved this book though they usually don't read much. It's that kind of a book. For me it's mandatory nerd reading, just like Chuck is mandatory nerd watching for me. Thumbs up from this nerd!