Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Posted on by Heather

From the Unabridged Compact Disc editionReady Player One by Ernest Cline
Published by Random House Audio

The world is a difficult place in the year 2044. Wade Watts spends most of his time in the OASIS, the virtual world where most of the population goes to escape the harshness and ugliness of the real world. James Halliday, creator of the OASIS, has hidden inside its many thousands of planets a puzzle that holds the ultimate power to whoever can solve its many elements and get to the end. Millions of people have worked towards finding these puzzles, with the knowledge that much of what Halliday based them on was his love of 1980’s pop culture, and Wade is just one of those many people. Since he is just a regular person without any real money or means of super powers inside the OASIS, he is happy learning as much about Halliday as possible while knowing, deep down, that he has no chance of being the winner of Halliday’s prize … until he finds the first puzzle.

What a fun and exciting novel Ready Player One is! Let me tell you that even though everyone recommended this book and said I would love it, I went into it with quite a bit of trepidation. You see, even though I was born in the 80’s (1983), I don’t have a lot of memories from the actual 80’s – I’m more of a 90’s generation kid – so I was nervous that I wouldn’t get a lot of the pop culture references. Fear not, fellow twenty-somethings, the 1980’s references were not lost on me a bit and I enjoyed the book all the more for them!

There was so much I truly enjoyed about this novel. Wade is the kind of character that you love and root for instantly – it’s that underdog thing I think, plus he’s such a truly good and nice person you just want good things to come his way. I loved the way he developed a friendship/romance with Artemis, a relationship that was completely based on their OASIS personas but which grew into something real over the course of the novel. I loved all of the adventures it took to get to the final prize from James Halliday.

And oh my gosh, H! For those of you who have read the book, I have to say, I LOVED what Cline did with Wade’s best friend, H. That is all.

I listened to the audio of Ready Player One which was absolutely the right choice. Wil Wheaton narrates it and he does a fantastic job. He truly brought the action, the characters, this entire adventure, to life. I was truly invested in this story and much of that is thanks to Wheaton’s expert narration. I am not sure I would have liked it quite as much had I chose to read the print version.

I loved Ready Player One! Highly recommended.

Published by Heather

12 thoughts on “Ready Player One by Ernest Cline”

  3. This is definitely not something I would normally read, but I really do think I need to give this one on audio a try! I worried about the 80’s references too, but sounds like that’ll be fine!

  4. Oooh so interested in reading this one! I hear the audiobook is great with Wil Wheaton narrating. I actually have yet to get an audiobook, but that might be my preferred choice for this one! 🙂

  7. I don’t know if it was all the hype or what…but I dug this book, I just didn’t DIG this book. Does that make sense? There were many aspects that I adored but parts just dragged for me.

  10. Everyone seems to rave about this one and it’s on my shelf (somewhere!). I think I’m going to have to work this into my July reading.

  11. I’ve read so much about this one that one day I want to read and then the next I don’t. However, being a teen in the 80’s makes me think that I would so get this and I think audio would be the best choice for me!! Loved your review!

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