Ready Player One

Initial Reaction: My mouth is still gaping wide open... this book is phenomenal!!! I still can't get over it. Really.. go read it. I'll be on cloud nine for a while fangirling and freaking out... eventually I'll be able to form real sentences and write a real review.

5 stars... plus a few more!!

This review is also posted on Great Minds Read Alike.

A little later: As you might have noticed, EVERYONE is raving about Ready Player One. Well.. I'm going to join their ranks. I'm still reeling from this book... it's the ultimate of armchair adventures, the epitome of fandomness of all things that have a fandom - 80s music, 80s TV shows/movies, video games from the very extreme very beginning, even MIDDLE EARTH, Doctor Who, Star Trek - it covers it all.

Ernest Cline is obviously the ultimate fanboy and has created an uber detailed world all his own. The story is set in 2050 - there is extreme poverty because of a fuel crisis and James Halliday has created the OASIS - my best description of the OASIS is that it is every WOW player's wet dream. Period. Everyone can access it for free. There are millions of sectors with hundreds of planets each, some that have magic, some that have technology, some that have neither... some that are PVP zones... some that are business and shopping zones - it's basically become the new reality. I honestly want to go to this place... there are worlds that are exact replicas of Middle Earth, the Death Star, etc. There are video game museums for miles. There's a zero gravity club that's a huge floating hollow sphere. The OASIS has everything... and the descriptions are told with such vivid detail. There's no doubt in my mind that a ton of research and mind power went into the writing. It's superb.

Next, the plot... it's GENIUS. James Halliday writes a series of secret keys and gates into the OASIS before he dies, the last of which contains the “golden egg”, and the person who solves all the riddles and finds the egg first will inherit sole power of the OASIS and James Halliday's entire fortune. The race for Holliday's “golden egg” takes off from the very beginning and literally keeps your heart racing the entire story. And the riddles are so well developed... the cleverness still makes me tingly inside.

There are overarching themes of true friendship, political unrest, and facing reality. The author reveals his opinions through his main character, Wade's, opinions on several issues, such as, atheism, the current state of humanity/government, and huge corporate giants. It's easy to tell where Cline stands but it's done very subtly and does not distract from the story itself. But I like books that take a stand, anyway.

Overall, I loved this book, and I immediately purchased a hard back copy for my bookshelf, so I can shove it in all my friends' and my husband's faces and make them read it. And (here's the big shocker) I'M NOT EVEN A GAMER. In fact, I'm one of those who has sworn off video games for most of my life.. I'm way too busy reading.

This story is really just an adventure, and I say that anyone who loves adventures would enjoy it. Even if you are not an 80s fangirl/fanboy, you will not have a problem getting any references... we all know what Pacman, Gallaga, and Sega are... plus, everything is explained, if needed.

I happen to be a concert junkie, so this really hooked me:
A concentrated, pulsing mass of ships and avatars covered the ground. It was like some otherworldly Woodstock.
Just one of many awesome descriptions throughout the story.

So... go get this book.. wherever you can. And read it. Just do it.