“It was the dawn of new era, one where most of the human race now spent all of their free time inside a videogame.”

Our adventure takes place in the near future (about 30 years from now).  Most people spend most of their time online (wait…) only online is way cooler.  They have the OASIS, which is kind of like a holodeck.  You put on a visor and haptic gloves and interact with your online world via your avatar.  (Kind of like the movie Avatar.)  And as the real world has gone to shit, being in the OASIS is way better than real life.

The creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, has died.  In his will, he has left his entire fortune to whoever can find the Easter Egg he left somewhere in his vast universe.  And so the hunt for the egg begins.  Halliday was obsessed with the 1980’s, with everything from movies to tv shows to, and especially, video games.  Since he was obsessed, everyone looking for the egg also
becomes obsessed, so as to get any clue to the location of the egg.  Wade Watts, or Parzival as his avatar called, is one of the millions of people looking for the egg.  Unlike those millions, he is the first one to make progress, and so he is vaulted into a life of celebrity and danger.  

This is more a stream of my thoughts as I went through the book than a review.  If you have not yet experienced Ready Player One, be prepared to be confused.  

Every time Wil Wheaton (the reader of the audiobook) talks about Star Trek, I smile, because he’s talking about himself. 

 

 

 

Every time they talk about an author I read, or even recognize, I’m like Buddy the Elf in the mall when they talk about Santa (I know him!)

I am super jealous of the school system they have.  The glory of being able to teach and not worry about discipline or classroom management?  And to have all of those resources available to you?  It’s an impossible dream, at least for now.  (But seriously, someone better be trying to make this happen.)

I always feel smug when I solve a puzzle before the narrator.  I know I’m supposed to, because the author has given all the necessary clues, but I feel smug anyway.  It’s the little things in life, I suppose.

The baddies are bad.  Really bad.  Stay away, Wade, they are called the baddies because they are BAD!

Man, if I had to burn a certain number of calories before I could go online, I would be in way better shape.  jk, I’d just read more physical books.  That’s how dedicated I am to sloth.

Guys. You guuuuuuys!  Shit just got real, man.  There is harshness and real shit and it’s bad news.  There’s like, almost 40% of the book left, so you know that things are going down.

(As I had rented this from the library, my audiobook was set to expire, so I listened to the last 10 chapters all in one go.  So it felt like it moved very fast!)

Ok, so things got very spy-like.  Awesome.  Wade is all like, NBD, but really, it’s a big deal.  It’s a VERY big deal, Wade!

I had some suspicions about Aech, but I was still completely surprised at the truth.  Go, Ernest Cline!  

 

There are things, and you’re all like, yes, this thing will be important later, and then you forget about it, because there’s so much awesome going on.  And then they use the thing, and you’re all like, OMG the THING!

 

The back half of Chapter 37 is the best thing ever.

So this was all of the awesome.  I was almost expecting another stumbling block before the end, but I’m way okay with how we ended!  And now I’m very impatient for the movie!