Gamersledge Book Review – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Before I start, just marvel at this:

This is fan art from Deviantart (link in image below). Someone made this, and it perfectly depicts a scene in the book.

ReadyPlayerOne
Do you see the Enterprise? Serenity? Giant Japanese Robots and more pop culture references than you could shake a stick at? It’s all here. In this glorious book.

Why would anyone take so much gorram time to do something like these?

Because they are 100% in love with this book. The year is 2044, and things… well, things are bad. The world is running out of energy, food, places to live — but there is one bright side: The Oasis. The king of all virtual reality simulations, it (very scarily and realistically) changes society in ways that you never thought possible. Job creation, escapism, addiction and rampant creativity abound; but then the author of the world’s only escape suddenly dies.

He leaves as an introduction to his will, a cryptic video with many hidden messages — and one clear one. An easter egg has been hidden in the Oasis, and whomever finds it first, inherits stakeholder control over the company that runs it. It’s worth *billions.* This is the story of six egg hunters, commonly referred to as ‘gunters,’ a corporation that is perverting the spirit of the competition and the fate of the world at hand.

If you have a pulse and are enamored by any kinds of pop culture, you will relate to this book. If you enjoy video games, then this book is written for you.

Ready Player One is, in my mind, the ‘Tommy’ opera of our time — it is so relatable, funny, sad and scary at the same time, I cannot conceive how the author could have improved upon it.

Verdict: 10/10 Liches – Go read it. Right now.

Also, this is a fan made trailer that does serious justice to the book:

And… Warner Bros. has picked it up to be a movie. So perhaps we’ll get it yet.