Post by Kawaii Kaiju on Oct 28, 2012 10:59:53 GMT -6
Ready Player One - Ernie Cline
Synopsis:
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
Comments:
I just finished reading "Ready Player One" by Ernie Cline. I highly recommend it to those how enjoy video games, 80s movies, 80s music, Monty Python, etc. While I thought the writing style was a little juvenile and under developed, I truly enjoyed the premise and the uber-geekiness of the book. He references the first video game easter egg (Atari 2600 - Adventure. A game I hold quite dear to my heart), a dungeons and dragon module that kicked my ass back in the day (seriously, we played Tomb Of Horrors over and over, it was a complete blood bath until we figured out all the little tricks), the movies War Games, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He mentions lyrics from TMBG, Rush, and Devo. He has a scene that features MechaGodzilla and Ultraman. He also mentions things that were even too geeky for me (the exploit in the first version of Tempest, the game Zork!, etc) For me, it was a delightful batch of nostalgia wrapped in an "okay if bland" story.
For those who prefer the audiobook genre, I understand that this book is read by Wil Wheaton. I have heard differing opinions on his performance. Some say he does a fine job, others say his California accent is way too annoying
Synopsis:
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
Comments:
I just finished reading "Ready Player One" by Ernie Cline. I highly recommend it to those how enjoy video games, 80s movies, 80s music, Monty Python, etc. While I thought the writing style was a little juvenile and under developed, I truly enjoyed the premise and the uber-geekiness of the book. He references the first video game easter egg (Atari 2600 - Adventure. A game I hold quite dear to my heart), a dungeons and dragon module that kicked my ass back in the day (seriously, we played Tomb Of Horrors over and over, it was a complete blood bath until we figured out all the little tricks), the movies War Games, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He mentions lyrics from TMBG, Rush, and Devo. He has a scene that features MechaGodzilla and Ultraman. He also mentions things that were even too geeky for me (the exploit in the first version of Tempest, the game Zork!, etc) For me, it was a delightful batch of nostalgia wrapped in an "okay if bland" story.
For those who prefer the audiobook genre, I understand that this book is read by Wil Wheaton. I have heard differing opinions on his performance. Some say he does a fine job, others say his California accent is way too annoying
