Ready Player One takes us back to the 80's
This book is a fairly recent addition to my kindle library. It pays homage to 80’s television, music, film, and video game trivia like no other book I’ve read before. It contains references to Gary Gygax, Duran Duran, Star Wars (the original), and many, many more pop culture icons from the 80’s. Anyone over forty will have no trouble picking out these references, especially for nerds like me. On the inside cover, we can see the author, Ernest Cline standing in front of a Delorean, the one from “Back to the Future” starring Michael J. Fox. There are also obvious references to Pac-Man, even on the cover.
The tale is set in a dystopian future in 2044. Billionaire inventor, James Halliday, whose real-life counterpart could easily have been Bill Gates from Microsoft, has passed away. However, this Halliday left behind a film which he produced himself called “Anorak’s Invitation”. It is of course filled with more 80’s references, and the gist of it is that he has left behind a puzzle of sorts in his greatest of all video games. Whoever manages to solve this puzzle, will inherit his entire fortune.
This Halliday, created an online virtual world called “The Oasis”. It is a massively multiplayer online virtual world that is bigger than any other virtual world in existence. It’s so big and popular, that people in 2044 have chosen to live out their lives in this virtual world, while the real-world collapses and crumbles all around them. Their sad existence is completely encompassed by The Oasis. People go to work in this online community, and children grow up in this virtual world and are even required to go to school in this fake reality. Meanwhile, the main protagonists in this story, Wade Watts and someone named Art3mis are best friends, but they only know each other through the game, they have never seen each other in real life. As far as Wade knows, Art3mis is probably a middle-aged fat guy named Chuck.
Wade’s real life is not so exciting as his virtual life in the Oasis. He lives in a tin trailer atop a tall stack of other tin campers and mobile homes. These “stacks” of mobile homes fill the trailer park where he lives, and they go as far as the eye can see. His parents hardly know he exists. Wade spends his days retreating to an abandoned van where he has his computer deck and virtual reality headset which allows him to jack into the Oasis. Once he is in this online world, he takes on his alter ego named Parzival.
Wade is completely driven to solve the puzzle from Anorak’s Invitation. He spends much of his time in the online school, only because he has to, but then after school he spends all the rest of his free time learning as much 80’s trivia as he can to solve the puzzle and find the Easter egg. He spends hours and hours watching reruns of “Family Ties” and reading old Dungeons and Dragons books, and playing Atari video games. He is completely absorbed in this. As is most of the rest of the world. In case you don’t know, an easter egg in a video game is often some clue left behind by the developer. It’s often a secret location, or a reference to something in pop culture, or even a secret message. It’s a well-known thing amongst the gamer culture, and the subject of many discussion on gamer discussion boards. In the book, those who pursue the easter egg are called “Gunters” which is short for egg hunters. These people sadly spend their lives looking for the easter egg.
The story moves along at a fast pace, as we get to know Wade and his friends, and I found it difficult to put down. I would highly recommend this book for teens and young adults, but the over-forty set will appreciate the 80’s references. If you would like to purchase a copy of this book, head on over to Amazon.com by clicking any of the links in this story, including the image above. I’ll also put a link down below to make it easy. This book will make a great gift for a teenager you may be trying to encourage to read. This is not a hard book for young people to like, and it’s not a book parents will be afraid to let their children read.
