Ready Player One

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

Wade Watts is in one of millions of people who live their lives through OASIS, the massive multi-player online reality. Through OASIS, Wade uses an avatar to attend school, make friends, and, along with thousands of others, search for the “Easter egg” hidden in the system’s code. The founder of OASIS left a secret egg hidden somewhere in the OASIS virtual world that, once discovered, will grant full authority of OASIS to the person whose avatar accomplishes a series of mysterious tasks. To locate the egg, OASIS users must decipher clues, seek out hidden gates, and accomplish unknown tasks, all somehow related to 80s pop culture, the pet passion of the founder of OASIS. Working as his avatar, Parzival, Wade and his friends, Aech, Art3mis, and Shoto, compete and cooperate to discover the egg before it falls into the hands of the enemy, the Sixers. The Sixers are a fleet of corporate-sponsored avatars that have real and virtual advantages including cheats, backdoors, and money to support their efforts in reaching the egg. To maintain the integrity of OASIS, Parzival and his companions must outsmart and outmaneuver the Sixers in the most astounding battle ever to occur in OASIS.

“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline is an engaging and surprisingly, and pleasantly, thought-provoking novel. Perhaps most important to the success of this story is that Cline makes the world of virtual reality accessible (helpful for the non-technologically inclined) by explaining terms and repeating them throughout the story so the words become familiar and also have context within the world of OASIS. Constant references to iconic 80s movies, games and songs contribute to the sense of reality within a fictional world, and also allows readers to nerd out about special interests without any shame or embarrassment. The most interesting aspect of the novel is the interplay between the virtual world of OASIS and the real world in which Wade physically exists. Although Cline could spend more time philosophizing on the connections and disconnections between the two worlds, he does comment on what is gained and lost in each reality. Altogether, Cline crafts a captivating world within a world that encourages critical reflection on what aspects are most important and most essential to what it actually means to exist.

Being unfamiliar with video games, this book was new to me in most ways, but still relatable and entertaining. I didn’t feel left behind when Cline talked about systems and codes, and I recognized more 80s references than I thought I would. A few parts of the book felt somewhat contrived, but in general I appreciated his effort to recognize issues like race, gender, and sexual orientation and the different impact it has in the real world and the virtual world of OASIS. With enough action, nerdy references, and thought-provoking moments to keep a variety of audiences engaged, I would say this is a pretty good book. Worth the read.