Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011)

2044 is not a reality you want to be apart of. Unfortunately, Wade doesn't have a choice. The world is overcrowded, to the point of people living in stacks of trailer parks, and violence is at an all time high. But none of this really matters, because everyone lives in the virtual word of the Oasis, a video game where everyone lives, literally. Every school, job, and human experience is programmed into the Oasis, and hardly anyone leaves the comfort, or discomfort, of their homes anymore. Wade is no exception, and has been living his life in the Oasis since he could talk. His life is a routine of logging on the Oasis until sleep, and then starting the process over the next day. That is, until the founder of the Oasis dies, leaving his fortune up in the air. In his legacy, he leaves a trail of clues throughout the world of Oasis, with only a one sentence riddle as help. For years, the riddle goes unsolved, until Wade discovers the first of three gates. Immediately, several other people unlock the gate, and the race to the finish line starts. What’s at stake: a more than billion dollar fortune, and the ruling of the Oasis, and in turn, the world.

I’m not the hugest fan of science fiction, so it took me a little bit to get into Ready Player One. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up in the first place, if not for the raving reviews I’ve been seeing everywhere about this book.Plus, it’s supposed to be turning into a pretty incredible movie, it is follows the plot. Ernest Cline built a beyond crazy world that I could definitely see as becoming our future. Basically, it was our world, but every problem we had was blown up to the extreme. It was crazy following the narrator's life, Wade, who found it completely normal to live his entire life inside a video game. On the outside, it sounds really board to just read about a guy’s life in a video game, but it was extremely interesting. Just like in the real life, the video games had a monarchy of wealth, even though the video game itself was free. Once the rights of the video game was up in the air, companies immediately started to take control, making it known that their first order of business would be to charge a monthly fee. In a way, Wade was a social justice leader, fighting for the people to make sure the base of their lives was still accessible. In itself, this book made a lot of statements about how we need to change the world we live in, especially about how we need to protect the world’s natural state, or else we’ll end up in a world just like Wade’s.

Definitely one of the most interesting books I’ve read, Ready Player One is a warning for humanity wrapped up in a video game.
4 Stars