A book review on 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline

by Solomon Midwinter
PHS Press staff member

Ready Player One is a truly great book, if you don't mind something that can be depressing at points.  It takes place in a dystopian, post apocalyptic world, where there was an Eco disaster that greatly damaged human civilization.  All the oil and coal has more or less run out. 

    The protagonist is a boy called Wade Watts, and his story up until the point where the book starts is not very happy.  He never knew his father, and his mother died when he was pretty young, so his aunt took him in, not out of any sense of kindness or family duty, but simply because she could use him to get extra food vouchers.  She doesn't even feed him or anything.  So, up until the point where the story starts, Wade has been just barely getting by. 
    A lot of the story, however, doesn't take place in the real world at all.  Instead, more than half of the book takes place inside a virtual reality called the OASIS, the biggest, most spectacular, hugely unbelievable video game ever created. 
    And it's not just Wade.  Most of humanity spends most of their time inside the OASIS.  It is, to them, simply a better place than the real world.  While this is pretty sad, it also reflects just how broken the world is at the time when the book takes place.
    But there wouldn't be much of a story if it weren't for James Halliday, the creator and owner of the OASIS, who died and left one most interesting will behind. 
    He turned his last will and testament into the biggest video game contest ever. He did this by hiding an Easter egg inside the OASIS, and explaining simply in his will that his entire estate would go to the first person to find it. 
    And it turns out that there is an elaborately hidden Easter egg in both the hardcover and paperback (and hopefully kindle) editions of the book, the first clue in a series of video game tests that is somewhat like that in the book.  The prize was a 1981 DeLorean.  I know Craig Queen won but even so, I'm going to do it, just to see if I could have won.
    Ready player one is filled with many great things.  There are great moments, some hilarious, some heartbreaking, and some that are just awesome. 
    So, it has been five years since Halliday's death, and the scene is set.  This book can be  hilarious, and is filled with strong characters, all set against an epic backdrop.  This is a book that I highly recommend.