Get Ready, Player One

Justin Loc

Ready Player One
By Ernest Cline

So, this is my second blog on the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If you have no idea what it’s about, I'll summarize the story again. No spoilers though, because I'd rather have people read the whole book and find out the story themselves.

This is a science fictional novel that uses real history of video games to add to the plot. Living with a crude aunt in a catastrophic future (starting around year 2044), the story begins with our protagonist/narrator, the lovely Wade Watts. Earth at the moment has futuristic technology that you could easily imagine being used in 20 years, while on the other hand, over half of the world is starving and in ruin (which by the the way is also easy to imagine in 20 years). Living in a trailer park in poverty, he is an orphaned teen who is both a gunter and student. Like many other people on the planet, Wade dreams of finding the hidden Easter egg of the OASIS, a virtual reality system that is used by most of the world’s population. Created by James Halliday and his partners, the OASIS became an extremely popular and necessity for all of mankind. The OASIS became a new world for humanity, at least whenever they weren't hungry. You wouldn't know who people were in real life though, as they could set their appearance and username to anything they desired. Other people would have to tell you who they really were, which was merely a trust system. Also in this paradise, students like Wade could complete their educations online, making school in reality unnecessary. Anyways, the Easter egg I was talking about was added into the OASIS by James Halliday before his death. To find the secret, you have to find and complete the three gates, and before each you had to find the keys and clues to unlock them. Each key and gate has a riddle of some sorts, where you must somehow decipher them to find where the appropriate gate is located. Whoever wins the challenge will receive Halliday’s fortune; over 240 billion dollars, as well as the position of boss at Gregarious Simulation Systems (James Halliday’s and Ogden Morrow’s company). Since finding a lead is extremely tough, it takes five years after Halliday’s death for something to progress in the Hunt, and Wade is the kid responsible for this. Wade, like many other devoted gunters, has an extreme knowledge of Halliday’s life, which the majority of it is about video games. The antagonists of the story are members of Innovative Online Industries, another worldwide and powerful organization. They commit inhumane acts to get any closer to finding the Easter egg. The prize being a fourth of a trillion dollars, throughout the novel we learn how serious the Hunt really is in Wade’s world. You are in for a bumpy ride once you start reading this, yet you will never want to get off of it once you do.

So, my first opinion of the book, as I said in “A Novel Incorporating Video Games? Yes Please!”, was that the book was perfect. Amazing. Ingenious. Well, now that I've finished reading the novel, my final opinion is that the book was indeed perfect, amazing, and ingenious. Cline’s story is an original one, and the characters themselves, as well as their dialogues, are relatable to modern day life. Some lines like “You and the other Sux0rs can all go f*ck a duck,” (141) can either get you to hate or love a character. Many lines people say are oddly relatable and humorous towards many teenagers. So, it makes sense for me to recommend this masterpiece to teenagers to read this. Even if you don't like video games, this is still quite enjoyable to read. Throughout the story, you can find action, drama, friendships, and hilarious moments, making this the most interesting and diverse book I've ever laid my eyes upon. Another thing I loved about this was how nearly every detail played a part in the story, and even the most strange of them somehow play a part. The story ties together every detail as you come closer to the climax of the novel. Personally, I have to admit that Wade has many similarities with myself. The one I noticed was that he says things I would totally say; “‘Greetings,’ I said, bowing slightly. ‘I am Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez,’”(88). This book fascinated me, related to me, and was pretty funny to me whenever there wasn't anything ‘serious’ occurring. If you think this book sounds like something you'd be willing to read, I doubt you would be disappointed with the results.