Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline


Ready Player One, by  Ernest Cline,
 is a story that takes place in the year 2045 where everyone has been playing this game called the Oasis. The Oasis is this V.R system where you can go and do amazing things like fight monsters or climb Mount Everest. It was created by a man named James Halliday who was an enthusiast of video games and fictional trilogies.The people in this time is known as the lost generation because all people do is play on the oasis. The main character of this story is a guy named Wade Watts and he lives in a town full of stacked trailers. His parents died when he was young and he lives with his aunt but he spends most of his time in the Oasis like everyone else. In the Book wade is not a very experienced character but he is clever, especially when it comes to fictional fan bases. One day the creator of the Platform Halliday, dies and sets out a video to everyone on the Oasis announcing the Easter egg hunt. The person who finds the egg wins half a trillion dollars and total control of the oasis. Wade makes it his goal to find the egg and faces a number of puzzles and challenges. He makes friends on his journey that eventually help him. His main threat is This Company called the Sixers who plan on doing what it takes to find the egg.

I thought that the book was enjoyable and full of creative twists. I liked how all the challenges the characters faced were Pop culture references. There were a lot of moments in the book where I'd go ," hey I know what that is". The story had a cool concept of a future that I'd both wish for and hope doesn't happen. In the story Society grows antisocial and people had relied on technology for freedom of the worlds instead of a social life in the real world. Whenever the people in the book went on these bizarre adventures I'd think of how cool it would be to do something like that. My favorite character was Artimus who was a very hardworking character who"s main mission was to get the egg. She was very competitive even with Wade (her love interest).

Reviewed by Anonymouse, Grade 10

Montrose Library

Comments

Teen Speak said…
Ready Player One is an amazingly detailed and intricate novel. Cline includes references to 80s pop culture throughout the book, as it's a focal point for the Oasis, a virtual space that helps people like Wade Watts (the main protagonist) escape the danger, drudgery, and an overall unappealing life in a semi-apocalyptic world. The creator of the Oasis included numerous puzzles, riddles, and references hidden in the games of Oasis (easter eggs) that would lead people to his fortune. However, nobody has ever solved the first of the three major puzzles that the creator set up. That is, until Wade manages to figure it out, on the way gaining respect from his friend, the world, and meeting his crush, all without the use of money, magic (in Oasis, magic is possible), or equipment in real life or in Oasis. Now to the bad stuff. Wade is the subject of a manhunt by thousands of Oasis users, his home was just bombed by the people who are chasing him, and those same people are also on the trail and are catching up to Wade.

This book was incredibly well written, it's difficult to describe. Its constant references to 80s pop culture (television shows, movies, video games, tabletop games, etc) is really well placed. The setting is creative and thought provoking, the endless possibilities of the Oasis are only describable as intriguing and happiness inducing (I don't know, I'm weird, just imagine that this existed in real life and think about how cool it'd be), the characters are detailed and have believable emotions and actions (minus some of the really heroic stuff), and the plot is so stunningly intricate and twists, turns, and intertwines with everything to form a masterpiece of a novel. I would recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys dystopian books, science fiction stories, or action novels.

Reviewed by Anonymous, Grade 9
Montrose Library
Teen Speak said…
“Ready Player One” is a novel written by Ernest Cline. The novel is about a character named Wade Owen Watts trying to win a challenge in a virtual reality system called the OASIS. The challenge is to find the easter egg hidden inside the OASIS left by the creator, James Halliday. This novel connects to the people in the real world because in the book it says that in the future, the world becomes polluted and almost everyone is living in poverty. It’s basically trying to tell us that if we don’t change right now, our future will be ruined. Still, this novel is amusing to read because of the pop culture references that people will absolutely love.

The characters and the whole plot of this book made me love it. I think that everyone around the age of fourteen will love to read this book. This book made me think about the future a lot. It made me to think of how the world will change in a bad way, if we don’t change right now. Still, I recommend this book because of how fun it is to read. If you love video games and pop culture references, then it’s a book that you shouldn’t miss out on.

Reviewed by Jonah, Grade 9
Glendale Central Library

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