"The OASIS, it's the greatest videogame
ever created, and it only costs a quarter."
In Ready Player One, the year is 2044 and the real world is "an ugly place," plagued with poverty, crime, and pollution. Like most people, Wade Watts seeks to escape reality and spend every waking minute jacked into a hyper-immersive videogame called OASIS. Within the digital utopia, people can be whoever they want, explore tens of thousands of unique planets, and live a surrogate life.
When OASIS's creator, James Halliday dies, his enormous fortune it's revealed is hidden somewhere within OASIS, setting in motion a massive global quest. The stakes quickly become lethal as millions of individuals and corporations scour OASIS's digital landscapes for clues, keys, special items, and the prized Easter Egg.
When OASIS's creator, James Halliday dies, his enormous fortune it's revealed is hidden somewhere within OASIS, setting in motion a massive global quest. The stakes quickly become lethal as millions of individuals and corporations scour OASIS's digital landscapes for clues, keys, special items, and the prized Easter Egg.
WHY I LOVE IT
I haven't read a book faster than Ready Player One in years. The incredible world-building makes for a truly epic, yet comprehensible universe — rules and details that compliment the plot instead of slowing it down for explanation. The main characters who team together, Wade Watts (who goes by Parzival in-game), Art3mis, and Aech, each have a unique voice and their conversations and choices feel organic and believable.
You don't need to enjoy nerd culture or video games to enjoy RPO; it's ultimately a story with a lot of heart: adventure, romance, friendship, courage, heroes and villains. If you want to get lost for an afternoon or two inside of a really fun video game, then open up Ready Player One. [JG]
You don't need to enjoy nerd culture or video games to enjoy RPO; it's ultimately a story with a lot of heart: adventure, romance, friendship, courage, heroes and villains. If you want to get lost for an afternoon or two inside of a really fun video game, then open up Ready Player One. [JG]
FAVORITE QUOTES
10. "It was the dawn of a new era, one where most of the human race now spent all of their free time inside of a videogame." (60)
9. "This "girl,' whom I'd been cyber-crushing on for the past three years, might very well be an abese, hairy-knuckled guy named Chuck." (88)
8. "At a time of drastic social and cultural upheaval, when most of the world's population longed for an escape from reality, the OASIS provided it, in a form that was cheap, legal, safe, and not (medically proven to be) addictive. The ongoing energy crisis contributed greatly to the OASIS's runaway popularity. The skyrocketing cost of oil made airline and automobile travel too expensive for the average citizen, and the OASIS became the only getaway most people could afford. As the era of cheap, abundant energy drew to a close, poverty and unrest began to spread like a virus. Every day, more and more people had reason to seek solace inside Halliday and Morrow's virtual utopia." (59)
7. "If I'd been hungry, I could have ordered a real slice of pizza at the counter. The order would have been forwarded to a pizza vendor near my apartment complex ,the one I'd specified in my OASIS account's food service preference settings. Then a slice would have been delivered to my door in a matter of minutes, and the cost (including tip) would have been deducted from my OASIS account balance." (220)
6. "I silently wished (not for the last time) that the OASIS was like an old Adventure game and that I could save my place. But it wasn't, and I couldn't. If my avatar died here, it would mean starting over with nothing. But there was no point in hesitating now. If the Lich killed me, I would come back tomorrow night and try again. The entire tomb should reset when the OASIS server clock struck midnight. If it did, all of the hidden traps I'd disarmed would reset themselves, and the treasure and magic items would reappear." (79)
5. "...The reality of my situation finally began to hit home. I was now a fugitive, living under an assumed name. Powerful people were looking for me. People who wanted me dead." (165)
4. "He told me how [they] had met...when they were both enrolled in an OASIS support group for hikikomori, young people who had withdrawn from society and chosen to live in total isolation. Hikikomori locked themselves in a room, read manga, and cruised the OASIS all day, relying on their families to bring them food. There had been hikikomori in Japan since back before the turn of the century, but their number had skyrocketed after the hunt for Halliday's Easter egg began. Millions of young men and women all over the country had locked themselves away from the world. They sometimes called these children the "missing millions."" (243)
3. "As soon as my log-in sequence completed, a window popped up on my display, informing me that today was an election day. Now that I was eighteen I could vote, in both OASIS eelctions and the elections of U.S. government officials. I didn't bother with the latter, because I didn't see the point. The once-great country into which I'd been born now resembled its former self only in name only. It didn't matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it. Besides now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists." (201)
2. "As we continued to talk, going through the motions of getting to know each other, I realized that we already did know each other, as well as any two people could. We'd known each other for years, in the most intimate way possible. We'd connected on a purely mental level. I understood her, trusted her, and loved her as a dear friend. None of that changes, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation." (321)
1. "It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS." (372)
9. "This "girl,' whom I'd been cyber-crushing on for the past three years, might very well be an abese, hairy-knuckled guy named Chuck." (88)
8. "At a time of drastic social and cultural upheaval, when most of the world's population longed for an escape from reality, the OASIS provided it, in a form that was cheap, legal, safe, and not (medically proven to be) addictive. The ongoing energy crisis contributed greatly to the OASIS's runaway popularity. The skyrocketing cost of oil made airline and automobile travel too expensive for the average citizen, and the OASIS became the only getaway most people could afford. As the era of cheap, abundant energy drew to a close, poverty and unrest began to spread like a virus. Every day, more and more people had reason to seek solace inside Halliday and Morrow's virtual utopia." (59)
7. "If I'd been hungry, I could have ordered a real slice of pizza at the counter. The order would have been forwarded to a pizza vendor near my apartment complex ,the one I'd specified in my OASIS account's food service preference settings. Then a slice would have been delivered to my door in a matter of minutes, and the cost (including tip) would have been deducted from my OASIS account balance." (220)
6. "I silently wished (not for the last time) that the OASIS was like an old Adventure game and that I could save my place. But it wasn't, and I couldn't. If my avatar died here, it would mean starting over with nothing. But there was no point in hesitating now. If the Lich killed me, I would come back tomorrow night and try again. The entire tomb should reset when the OASIS server clock struck midnight. If it did, all of the hidden traps I'd disarmed would reset themselves, and the treasure and magic items would reappear." (79)
5. "...The reality of my situation finally began to hit home. I was now a fugitive, living under an assumed name. Powerful people were looking for me. People who wanted me dead." (165)
4. "He told me how [they] had met...when they were both enrolled in an OASIS support group for hikikomori, young people who had withdrawn from society and chosen to live in total isolation. Hikikomori locked themselves in a room, read manga, and cruised the OASIS all day, relying on their families to bring them food. There had been hikikomori in Japan since back before the turn of the century, but their number had skyrocketed after the hunt for Halliday's Easter egg began. Millions of young men and women all over the country had locked themselves away from the world. They sometimes called these children the "missing millions."" (243)
3. "As soon as my log-in sequence completed, a window popped up on my display, informing me that today was an election day. Now that I was eighteen I could vote, in both OASIS eelctions and the elections of U.S. government officials. I didn't bother with the latter, because I didn't see the point. The once-great country into which I'd been born now resembled its former self only in name only. It didn't matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it. Besides now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists." (201)
2. "As we continued to talk, going through the motions of getting to know each other, I realized that we already did know each other, as well as any two people could. We'd known each other for years, in the most intimate way possible. We'd connected on a purely mental level. I understood her, trusted her, and loved her as a dear friend. None of that changes, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation." (321)
1. "It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS." (372)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ready Player One is Ernest Cline's first novel. He also wrote the screenplay for the cult classic Fanboys. I just picked up his second novel, Armada, a space-opera-coming-of-age tale which Rolling Stone eloquently called "Nerd-gasmic."
Also, Earnie owns a tricked out Delorean with an Oscillation Overthruster that lets him travel through solid matter, sometimes accompanied by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.
He lives in Austin with his wife, daughter, and "a huge video game collection."
Ready Player One is Ernest Cline's first novel. He also wrote the screenplay for the cult classic Fanboys. I just picked up his second novel, Armada, a space-opera-coming-of-age tale which Rolling Stone eloquently called "Nerd-gasmic."
Also, Earnie owns a tricked out Delorean with an Oscillation Overthruster that lets him travel through solid matter, sometimes accompanied by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.
He lives in Austin with his wife, daughter, and "a huge video game collection."
"Don't make the same mistake I did.
Don't hide in here forever."
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