Ready Player One

Nostalgia is often a wonderful thing, but Ernest Cline takes it 100 steps further. Ready Player One is a Science Fiction novel set in the near future of Earth. In this time the majority of the worlds' population is enraptured by the most amazing video game ever, the 'OASIS'. The OASIS is an immense virtual world that has near totally encapsulated the internet, gaming, social networks, education and shopping. The advanced technology of the OASIS allows the user to see, feel and touch everything that they experience in the virtual reality. But it comes at a cost, because as more of the world exchanges reality for the OASIS, the world finds itself descending further into a resource crisis from which there may never be recovery.

Into the morass of this suddenly comes the biggest game ever with high stakes and big rewards. The super wealthy inventor of the OASIS has died and in a spectacularly public display, he announces the terms of his will. James Donovan Halliday, the creator of the OASIS announces that his vast fortune and thereby his control of the OASIS is bequeathed to the one player of the OASIS that finds his 'easter egg'. To do this Halliday created tests and challenges to test the worthiness of the of those who seek the 'easter egg'. But in order to find and succeed in these challenges you must have the traits that Halliday deemed worthy. Most notably among them is an obsession with the decade of the 80s, the decade in which Halliday grew up.

As our story starts, several years have passed since the challenge was issued. No names have appeared on the score-board and many of the searchers for the 'easter egg' have given up. But still a thriving subculture of egg hunters (known as Gunters) exists and searches for the 'Egg'. One of these gunters is Wade Owen Watts a young man living in the trailer stacks of Oklahoma. Known as Parzival on the OASIS, Wade uses his very limited resources to search for the 'Egg', until one day during class he stumbles upon the answer of the first riddle. From this moment and Wade's success on the first challenge, the competition runs into high gear, throwing the OASIS into turmoil as the final race for the 'Egg' begins. In this race Wade is joined by competitors Art3mis, Aech, Daito & Shoto. But against all of them are the sinister workers of the Innovative Online Industries (IOI), led by the dastardly Nolan Sorrento, who wish to take total control over the OASIS and subvert it for their own gain.

Ready Player One is a fantastic book as it explores many of the most important human feelings and motives. Loss, love & the pursuit of happiness, all peppered with rapier wit and salted with the most in depth analysis of 1980s pop culture. From time travelling Delorians to Star Wars. From Anime to the most corny 1980s teen and kid movies. Ready Player One has it all. Currently Ready Player One is being adapted for cinema by Warner Brothers with Steven Spielberg set to direct.
Ready player One is available in book form or in audiobook (narrated by well known actor Wil Wheaton).

Ernest Cline's Website: Ernest Cline
Ready Player One Amazon.com: Ready Player One Book
Ready Player One Audible.com: Ready Player One Audiobook

Jones, G 2011,  Ready Player One Illustration, image, The Verge, viewed 20 October 2015, < http://cdn3.sbnation.com/assets/4118591/ready_player_one_parzival_by_gordon_jones-1024.jpg >.

Random House Publishers, 2011,  Ready Player One Book Cover, image, Nerdist, viewed 20 October 2015, < http://www.nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/021915_ReadyPlayerOne_Cover-324x500.jpg >.