My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Summary from GoodReads
A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
BUY ON
REVIEW
The reason I read this book was SDCC. When I saw the teaser trailer of the movie, I KNEW that I had to read the book. I listened to it and when I got the ebook I dove back to it, so I could also do some research on the 80's pop culture.
The plot is not so dystopian as you'd expect. Humans have destroyed the planet, there are wars, famine and the riches are gathered to the few. But all have access to the OASIS, a virtual reality which can be accessed through haptic gloves and visors. The OASIS is based in 80's; the Sectors, planets, pop culture music, TV shows, EVERYTHING!
Wade is the main protagonist who hunts along with other players, the Easter Egg, the creator of the OASIS hid into the game, before he died. Wade's avatar meets with others, as also his virtual crush Art3mis, and together they try not only to discover the Keys which will lead them to the Egg but also hide from the Sixers, avatars working for the corporation IOI which wants to win the contest and take the fortune of the OASIS creator, Halliday, along with it.
The book is a riddle filled with 80's trivia. Now except from some known movies like Star Wars, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and the such, I have no knowledge of the rest Wade mentions in the book. So I researched everything mentioned and I was able to recognize most of them.
I was born in 1992 and most of my knowledge of the 80's comes from my parents who liked the music and most of the movies. When the Delorean, Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings, the Iron Giant are mentioned in the book I smiled. When the virtual world is described I gawked because I'd give everything to visit something like that. Needless to say that Steven Spielberg's name is mentioned too, and he is the director of the movie!
But (and it is a big, fat BUT), as it happens with dystopian enviroments, humanity prefers to closes its eyes to the world's problems and get lost into the virtual world. Wade describes how life looks outside the OASIS, and how he lives when he isn't logged into the game and truthfully it's a sad excuse for a life.
There is no real social exchange, since you can customize your avatar into ANYTHING you want, people can get rich or poor when they interact with the game and many of them turn into "working slaves" for IOI, the enemy corporation who wants to win the race for the Egg.
The ending was amazing. The battle scenes and the quests fantastic! And for the record, there are many known anime mentioned, we have a Japanese character and a hidden surprise for a avatar, friend of Wade's.
I can only wish for Ernest Cline to write a similar book for us poor souls born in the 90's! Because we had: Pokemon, Disney, Studio Ghibli, Sailor Moon, Jurassic Park, Digimon and all our favorite tv shows and movies!
Here's the teaser trailer:
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