Ready Player One

GWC Community GWC Book Club
#1

I seriously beg, plead, grovel, demand, need everyone to read this book. If you’re like me and were aware of the 80’s from a first person standpoint then this is a wondrous fun filled trip down memory lane for you.

Here’s the short Amazon blurb about it: Ready Player One takes place in the not-so-distant future–the world has turned into a very bleak place, but luckily there is OASIS, a virtual reality world that is a vast online utopia. People can plug into OASIS to play, go to school, earn money, and even meet other people (or at least they can meet their avatars), and for protagonist Wade Watts it certainly beats passing the time in his grim, poverty-stricken real life. Along with millions of other world-wide citizens, Wade dreams of finding three keys left behind by James Halliday, the now-deceased creator of OASIS and the richest man to have ever lived. The keys are rumored to be hidden inside OASIS, and whoever finds them will inherit Halliday’s fortune. But Halliday has not made it easy. And there are real dangers in this virtual world. Stuffed to the gills with action, puzzles, nerdy romance, and 80s nostalgia, this high energy cyber-quest will make geeks everywhere feel like they were separated at birth from author Ernest Cline.–Chris Schluep

Here’s my GoodReads review of the book: If you grew up in the eighties, any of the eighties, or like me, ALL of the eighties, then this is the homecoming to nostalgia you’ve been waiting for. I dare you to read this book and not grin like an idiot when you catch a sly reference to a movie or a song or a game you grew up with. I double dare you to not identify with the heroes of the book and I triple dog dare you not to enjoy the hell out of this book. If the scuttlebutt is correct and they make this into a movie, well I’ll be camping out to see this one the instant it hits the screen. Yeah, it’s that good. So…why are you still here? Read it already!

And the Audible version of the book is read by none other than Wil Wheaton! geekspasm nerdagsm

If there is a nerdvana out there - it lives in this book. Seriously!

#2

Well, I’m always up for a dare.

Bring. It. On.

#3

I have this loaded on my Kindle and ready to read - oh wait, I can’t…My Kindle keeps hanging so I have to wait for a replacement shake fists. I do look forward to reading it though. My teenage years was in the 90s but I do get 80s references.

#4

Alright, I don’t spend too much time on the forums, but logged on simply to plug this book. Rowan is 100% dead on. I’m only 120pgs in and I’m loving it. I’m a child of the 80’s(44 next month) and this novel is bringing back so many memories from Atari2600’s Adventure, The Tomb of Horrors D&D module, the movie Wargames, and references to numerous movies and novels of the 80’s. Read it.

Delaware Dean

#5

Late to the party. 80’s survivor and owner of teh D&D module. What an awesome book. My boy turns 15 this weekend…is a tabletop paper/dice gamer with me, gets all the references in the book and is busy growing up into a much better looking version of me…

-Trey

#6

I just finished reading this based on the reviews and… I just want to thank you all for sending this recommendation my way. I am also in my 44th year, and while I couldn’t relate to the D&D components, there was more than enough content here to keep me engaged.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can heartily recommend any kid of the '80’s take a look.

Gaf

#7

Thank you Rowan for recommending this book. It was awesome. I definitely found myself getting nostalgic for many of the 80’s references mentioned, especially the D&D stuff. It was also one of those books that was hard to put down once I started reading it.

If anybody has been considering reading this, I highly recommend it. Even if the 80’s nostalgia doesn’t appeal to you or you weren’t a child of the 80’s… it’s still a great story about the little guy taking on an evil corporation that will stop at nothing to get what they want in order to exploit it for profit.