Ready Player One

I have read many fantastic life changing novels, but this summer I read something truly special. My dad is a nerd, and one of his nerd friends Ernest Cline finally made his big break. Erny has always been a writer, I’ve even heard his stand up, but most of all he has always been a gamer. He wrote a novel for all his geeky nerdy friends, called Ready Player One.

“Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest.” That is the first sentence of the novel. Intrigued? Our protagonist Wade Watts, better known as his gamer name Parzival, lives in a world of extreme poverty and overpopulation due to an energy crisis. How does the human race survive in such suffering you ask? James Halliday, a gaming 80's geek saved the world with a The OASIS.The OASIS is a virtual reality but for most people living in 2044 it’s more real than their own home. Most people actually use the OASIS to go to work and make money, go to school, explore the world, read books, play games, you name it the OASIS has it. Naturally James Halliday grew to being a billionaire, and when he died everyone was curious who would inherit the massive fortune and sole rights to the OASIS. James Halliday had no family, no heirs; that’s why he created a contest to win his fortune.

A strength of the novel would be the way Wade tells his story. He is telling the reader the story after it has all happened; because Wade knows how his story will end he is able to give the perfect amount of detail and leave mystery. Another strength would be the characters; the dynamic between Wade and Aech (H) his best friend made me lose myself in the story. Not saying any names because it’s written perfectly, but if you are a romance lover you won’t be disappointed. A weakness of the novel would be all the references, not that I don’t love the 80s references, just the mass quantity of them. I had to look up old movies and songs to be able to truly understand.

This is a novel for people of all ages and all levels of nerd. “ I think the book is amazing because it exploits the past to explore the future”, said my dad, T Murray.(T.M.)

You can find it online, or at your local bookstore. The movie release date is March 30,2018. The trailers are amazing but please refrain from watching them until you read the book!!!

All you have to do is ask yourself, are you ready player one?