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Book Review of Ready Player One (Ready Player One, Bk 1)

Ready Player One (Ready Player One, Bk 1)
robinmy avatar reviewed on + 2050 more book reviews


The year is 2044 and the world is not a nice place. Most of humanity avoids the real world and lives their lives in the virtual world of OASIS, created by Billionaire James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he leaves a message for the world. He has hidden an easter egg inside the OASIS. Anyone who can solve a series of intricate puzzles and find the easter egg will inherit Halliday's fortunate along with ownership of the OASIS. Teenager Wade Watts along with millions of other people spend their days and nights trying to solve these puzzles. He does research on the inventor of OASIS, knowing that Halliday's life and love of games and pop culture will surely be the key to the puzzles. When Wade, with his avatar Parzival, solves the first puzzle, everything changes.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton. It was 15.5 hours long and I have to say the first couple of hours were SLOW. Even though Wil Wheaton does a fantastic job with the story, there was way too much world building at the beginning of this book. I almost gave up on this one. I'm glad I didn't. After getting all of the background about the world in 2044, along with James Halliday's life and everything he ever invented or had his hands on, the story finally moved forward. Parzival (Wade) figures out the first clue using his knowledge of 80's trivia and pop culture to work his way through the various worlds in the OASIS. Parzival and his virtual friends, Aech, Art3mis, Daito, and Shoto are racing to find the next clue when a company named Innovative Online Industries (IOI) decides that they will do anything to be the first to solve the puzzles and rule the OASIS.

People like me who grew up in the 80's will enjoy the huge amount of 80's trivia and pop culture references. If you can wade through the first few hours of the book, I think you will enjoy this story. My rating: 4 Stars.