Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

High School

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place.

The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of the 80’s and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself hunted by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win.

As someone who has spent many hours combing the shelves at libraries and bookstores, I’ve seen many books with this sort of plot. That plot being a utopia virtual reality video game world that people escape and/or get trapped in while the rest of the world is falling in on itself. It’s no longer a unique story plot but ‘Ready Player One’ is one of the good ones.

There are so many references to the 80’s TV shows, 80’s movies, 80’s video games, and 80’s culture. You don’t really need to know everything about the 80’s to follow what’s going on, but it’s more fun if you know a few things. The 80’s were an interesting time. As to quote the hit TV show ‘The Goldbergs’, “It was the age of E.T., Mr. T, and MTV. Back then the world was still small. There were no cellphones, or Internet, or Twitter.’ It just seemed like a simpler time.

The scary part about this story is that this future is very possible. It’s only 2017 and we already have virtual reality headsets. The thing is technology is getting more and more advanced every year but world is getting worse and worse. We are becoming a race that relies too much on technology and I am ashamed to say I’m one of them.

The OASIS seems like a cool place in theory, kind of like how motorcycles seem like a cool idea in theory. By this I mean the stuff in the OASIS is amazing; whole planets based on classic movies, a pretty decent public-school system, and nonstop fun. But it’s not real. No matter how much added technology you use to make it feel real, it’s still just bright color and code that doesn’t really exist. I don’t really like reality to begin with but I get a headache if I stare at my computer screen too long. I don’t think I’d be able to handle ‘living’ in a virtual world.

This book does a great job of summing up what the human race would be like at it worst. I’ll let you read the book and figure out what I mean by that. All I can say is I fear for the human race and hope there will be a few humans in the future that can help save the earth from ourselves.

I read this book because I found out that it’s going to be made into a movie, directed by Steven Spielberg. Which is extra cool because he’s mentioned in the book, along with every other movie made in the 1980’s. The film is scheduled to be released on March 30, 2018. I have no idea how they’re going to fit so much into one movie.