The book is set in the not too distance dystopic future. This dystopia isn't as garish or grim as most though. The world of tomorrow in RPO (Ready Player One, natch) is faded and rundown. The energy crisis never gets solved and so all of humanity is slowly being strangled by the lack of cheap energy. To escape this grey reality most people in RPO spend their time online playing a virtual reality Massive Multiplayer game. This all sounds like some pretty heavy stuff for a lite fare book but we the reader also spend most of our time online in the Virtual Reality universe of OASIS.
The story is incredibly straight forward. Wade Watts is a teenager with nothing to lose. He and thousands of others are hunting for the inheritance of the mutli-billionaire who created OASIS for years. This eccentric genius, James Halliday, was a huge geek who was particularly obsessed with the 1980s. Dying without an heir Halliday reveals there is series of riddles and tests hidden in OASIS. The first to complete these hidden tasks becomes the master of OASIS. All the riddles and games are related to various geek pop culture. Young Wade races his fellow hunters and an unintentionally hilarious evil corporation to win the game and the (VR) world. It is literally that simple and (spoilers!) there are no twists or turns at all. Everything is as it seems; which is kind of shocking for a tale taking place in that bastion of lies and illusions, the internet.
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Ernest Cline really pushes the 80s nostalgia in Ready Player One. It isn't really a detriment to the enjoyment of the book. But it didn't seem to add anything either. There is more to nostalgia than just dumping as many titles and catchphrases as possible into a movie/show/novel. And that's all there really is in RPO. A writer should captured the actual feelings and atmosphere of those halcyon days. I ended the book with a slightly dirty feeling actually. Cline's love of the 80s appears authentic. But the way he markets RPO is transparently base pandering. It all but shouts, from the cover to the back, "Love my book nerds because I reference things you liked/like!" Ugh.
So should you read RPO? Depends really what you are looking for and your interests. RPO is simple: simple prose, simple plot, simple delights. It is almost a Young Adult book I'd say. But it's simplicity makes it easy to digest. If you are looking for some low calorie fun and have some geeky interests you could do a lot worse than Ready Player One. Final score: 6 out of 9 hidden stars found.
