Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

 (warning: spoilers)
I just finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, and it is the best book I have read for a long time. Avid readers of my blog may be aware that I usually post reviews of older classic books, but I can safely say this newer, modern style of writing was a breath of fresh air for me. Cline’s style of writing is concise, yet extremely descriptive, and he never rambles or mentions unnecessary details. 

The plot of Ready Player One surrounds a young boy, Wade Wyatt, and his adventures through a hyperrealistic interactive virtual reality simulator called the OASIS. The year is 2044, and the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, has recently died. Before his death, he made the grand decision to leave his entire legacy to the one person who completes his virtual easter egg hunt inside the game. Shortly after the reveal of this information to the public through the release of a video made by Halliday, hoards of people begin studying Halliday’s interests to extreme detail, hoping to find something that could hint at where the first “key” is. 

Wade is one of the “gunters” that is hoping to find the first key, and his whole life is centered around getting familiar with all of Halliday’s hobbies and interests. Eventually, Wade discovers a reference to a video game hidden in a line of the video, and he soon discovers the first key. I won’t spoil the rest of the book, but it only gets more intense from there.

My review:
My favorite part of Ready Player One was the way that the characters developed, and how distinct their character traits were. My favorite character, Wade, for example, has a main character trait of intelligence and cunning, with a big, witty personality. A great example of his witty personality is when he is invited to a meeting with IOI, an evil corporation trying to win the contest. A representative of IOI offers large sums of money and power in exchange for the location of the first key, and at first, Wade seems to agree, but soon after, he says “I’ve spent the last few seconds thinking this over a bit more, and I’m gonna have to pass on your offer.” This actually made me laugh out loud, and is a really strong instance of Wade’s personality. 

Overall, Ready Player One is a super good book, and I have to strongly suggest it to you if you like science fiction. Even if you don’t like science fiction, I still recommend you give it a try. Ernest Cline is a wonderful author, and the pacing in the book is perfect.

--Ethan Roberts

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