18 year old Wade Watts is an unhealthy, poor orphan living in the worst part of town. The only place where he feels at home and among friends is in the OASIS, the MMORPG that is the real world for many people. Here Wade has a purpose – to work his way through riddles on 80s pop culture and be the first one to find the “Easter egg” hidden in the game.
At first glance, this book is not a fancy sort of book. The writing is not artsy, the story does not bring about a grand revelation. And yet, the writing really flows. The characters feel like real live people (with pop culture and video game obsessions). And the story is the sort that keeps you up at night reading with the light from your phone (how long had it been since I did that). My only regret is that I did not know most of the 80s references. I’m sure it would have made the journey ten times more enjoyable.
If given the choice, I too would escape to the OASIS. OASIS is just incredible world building on Ernest Cline’s part. A place engineered to contain perfect replicas of all your favorite stories’ settings, a place where the adventures you can go on are endless…When I say it that way, it seems to be the equivalent of a digital Disneyland. You might think that stories taking place in MMORPG games have been done before (“Sword Art Online”, etc.) However, the race to find the egg and some of the challenges that Wade had to face were very creative and unique. And there’s also the fact that OASIS is not just a game to Wade and many others – it is reality itself.
I’m very excited to see that “Ready Player One” will be adapted for the screen. I’m looking forward to seeing all the cool MMORPG action described (very vividly, I should add) in the book. Awesome. After seeing all the amazing visuals of recent movies (like “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”), I honestly can’t wait.
This book really reminded me of why I love reading. My summer reading was coming to a slow close, but now I feel like flying through mounds of books.
Thoughts On Books and Everything Else 
I LOVE Ready Player One. It’s got some rough spots, but overall, I feel like the rest of the book makes up for it.
I love the 80s references, and I researched some more obscure ones. Cline’s second novel, “Armada” (which is in no way affiliated with RPO) has a ton of 80s references, too, and I feel like I understood it more because I’d previously read RPO.
I didn’t really know most of the references, but Cline does a good job of explaining them (without really spoiling them). It didn’t feel like I was missing parts of the story because I didn’t know them. It would have been a lot more fun if I did though, I can definitely see that!
Armada seems pretty cool too, I’ll get around to reading it some time.
It’s best, but I didn’t think it was as good as RPO.