#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. “Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready? In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is … the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.
When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself.
Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club
“Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost
“An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN
“A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe
“Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR
“[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9
more
It’s only the greatest book of all time in any universe.
(but that’s just my humble opinion)
This book transports you to the world of gaming from an alternate perspective. You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate the story line. Characters are well developed, as is the world within the pages. Worthy of a second read
Top ten books whose film adaptions didn’t do them justice. Dear Spielberg, just cause the main characters are teenagers doesn’t mean it has to be yet another Hunger Games knockoff. Honestly the most impressive part of the book is that Cline understood what no one else does – you can write a book with teenage protagonists without the book being targeted towards kids.
Fans of 70s and 80s TV, movies, music, and video games would love all the references. The movie is ok but not as good.
Nostalgic! That’s what this book is.
Being a gamer and a kid who grew up in the 1980s, this book was not only a trip back in time, but Ernest Cline revisit all of my favorite films, music and video games of this amazing era of pop culture.
For those who might be too young to know what any of that means above, the book is still well worth the read. Anyone reading this book will be right there with Wade as he becomes the first to find the first key EVERYONE has been searching for five years. This ordinary kid who studied the said 80s pop culture is about to become the richest person on the planet. Who wouldn’t want to be in his shoes??
And like any hero’s journey, Wade’s tale isn’t just about claiming the Golden Fleece – or in this case, the Easter Egg in the middle of the Oasis – it’s a journey of discovery and growth.
THE BEST book I have ever had the pleasure of reading…five times now? Well, it may be six, now that my brain is back into the joy of this story. You especially have to listen to it in audiobook, as it is read by the amazing Wil Wheaton. Go get this book now! It’s awesome!!
This is the best book that I ever read!!!
I am a ‘child of the 80’s’ I could appreciate most of the references to people, games, music, movies, etc. which made it that much better. Those born in or after the 80’s might have less understanding of the references.
I thought the story was fun and creative, even thought the writing wasn’t great.
Fantastic, especially if you were living in the eighties. So much fun and the story leaves you happy. I couldn’t put it down.
Life for Wade Watts aka, Perzival, is much different than the world we live in. It’s the year 2045 and the machines HAVE taken over, just not quite the way you think.
This story is a fast paced whirlwind of pop culture references. It’s heavy with nostalgia for gamers and 1980’s geeks/nerds. This really is a book for the “outcast”. Each one of our main characters has one reason or another that they’ve chosen to emerse themselves so completely in OASIS.
For me personally, it resonated with that part of me that sometimes still feels like the kid in school no one spoke to. The one who tried to fade into the background because as much as being overlooked sucked being noticed was infinitely worse.
Sorry Steven Spielberg, but this is one where the book is light years better than the movie.
THIS IS A MUST READ FOR POP CULTURE BUFFS!
Anything from War Games to Back to the Future to GUNDAM is in this AMAZING BOOK!
Plus, this book provides THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTIONS TO WORLD PROBLEMS THAT CAN BE MADE TO HAPPEN! FREE UNIVERSITY LEVEL SCHOOLING BEING JUST ONE!
Ready Player one: a Review
Noah Bettich, Souders 1#
If you’re stuck in a stressful spot in your life right now, wishing you could escape to some other world, where everything is perfect and you could do anything you want, the novel Ready Player One is the perfect book for you. In the universe of this book, Earth has become a dystopian apocalyptic wasteland. Billions of people are starving, an energy crisis causes countless wars and conflicts, and year by year food becomes less and less available. But humanity has an escape. The Oasis. A virtual universe created by James halliday that anyone could play for free. In this world, you could do anything you’ve ever dreamed of, and become anybody you wanted to. You could be a videogame character, or a wild two headed creature, or a cyborg. And stuck in between these two worlds is the main character, Wade Watts. The story follows him through a journey of love, mystery, and intense action that will have you chanting as you read. I can tell you all this is true because I was doing it myself while invested in the novel. Not only does the book offer character development and interaction that makes the reader think and try to solve the question Wade keeps subconsciously asking himself, it offers detailed imagery and describes scenes as if it were a real life action movie and you were there to watch as it happened. I could only describe this book as a geek wonderland for overworked adults who want to revisit their cool child fantasies and teens who love pop culture and videogames. It’s like every fiction and fantasy universe you’ve ever loved have combined into a perfectly molded sandbox. My only query about this book is that it doesn’t focus as much on the character development as it could have. Through the story, Wade is trying to find out what really makes him truly happy and it isn’t subtly hinted towards that very often in the story. But while character development is not as totally in depth as it could have been, the reader can still figure these things out while they read and there is resolution to Wade’s biggest question at the end of the novel. It is all-in-all one of the best books I have ever read and I would recommend it to any geek out there who wants to find the perfect world to escape to.
Read the book skip the movie.
As good as anything I’ve read in the last decade. Grabs you from the first page and never lets go.
One of my very fav dystopian novels. Couldn’t put it down!
If I had to choose a single word to describe this book, it would be “Wow” with a capital W. From the 80’s nostalgia to the incredible world building, this book has definitely become one of the greats of the modern sci-fi classics. I had a repeat “Wow” moment when I listened to the audio book. Wil Wheaton would have to be one of the best choices for the job and nails it perfectly. What a thrill to immerse one’s self into this story. Highly recommend it.
This book was pure entertainment. The first-person narrative is so well done it feels like you are sitting there listening to him tell his story.
This book was the perfect blend of 80’s humor and video game references. I don’t know what else to say. It’s one of my top 3 favorite books. I couldn’t get enough of it once I started reading.
This book is magical, and I loved every second of reading it. Anyone who has only seen or heard of the film adaptation: please read the book. While fun, the movie is lackluster and shallow compared to the world of the novel, and the plot in the book is so much smarter.
One of my all time favorites. If you love the 80s and science fiction, it’s definitely for you. Although it’s apocalyptic, it’s hopeful, which is rare. Plus it’s just plain entertaining.