For a bunch of hairless apes, we’ve actually managed to invent some pretty incredible things.
Have you ever played any video game? In fact, let me rephrase that: have you ever wanted to be a part of a video game? I’m not talking about playing as a character in 1st or 3rd person, but rather as being inside the game as you would be in a real world. This novel tackles just that – it revolves around a VR (virtual reality) game being played in 2045, and for a video game junkie like myself, you can imagine why it’s at the top of my list.
The sci-fi novel Ready Player One was published in 2011 (both as a physical copy and an audiobook), long before VR headsets and video games in general became a part of the mainstream media. It is also the very first novel that Ernest Cline wrote and has been adapted into a movie in 2018. As for all things, people had divided opinions for this novel as well – some praised it, saying it was fun, engaging and witty, while others criticized it with the argument being that it’s immature, unbearable, and terribly written. To each their own, I guess!
THE AVATARS OF THE PLOT
Since the novel is written from a 1st person point of view, we have Wade Watts (and his avatar Parzival) as our narrator. Wade is a teenager, living with his aunt in the “stacks” of Oklahoma City, who finds his escape from reality in a VR simulator OASIS. He idolizes James Halliday, who is the game’s creator and the founder of Gregarious Games.
To me, they were hallowed artifacts. Pillars of the pantheon. When I played the classics, I did so with a determined sort of reverence.
Wade doesn’t have any real-life friends, but he does have a virtual best friend – Aech, whose real-life name is unknown for most of the book. He met Aech in an online chat, and they bonded over a lot of shared interests. Along their quests, they also meet Samantha Cook (Art3mis), a blogger and an avid gamer like themselves. These three, along with two “brothers” Daito and Shoto will form a group (not like a boyband) that will later be known as The High Five.
Among other characters we see throughout the novel are Ogden Morrow, Halliday’s best friend and the co-creator of OASIS; and Nolan Sorrento, a chief operating officer of IOI (Innovative Online Industries), a company that provides Internet service to most of the world.
READY, SET, GO!
The year is 2040, and the world is devastated by an energy crisis (which we aren’t far from in today’s time, to be honest). Overpopulation, global warming, and pollution have consumed everything, causing poverty, social problems and a stagnation in the overall economy. During these troubling times, the OASIS comes as an escape for people, giving them a chance to try a different life, even for a little while. It functions both as a virtual world and an MMORPG, and has countless possibilities for games, avatars and everything else you can think of.
I’d heard of Halliday, of course. Everyone had. He was the videogame designer responsible for creating the OASIS, a massively multiplayer online game that had gradually evolved into the globally networked virtual reality most of humanity now used on a daily basis.
One day, a posthumous video of James Halliday is sent worldwide, where he states that an Easter egg was left somewhere in the OASIS, and whoever finds it first, inherits his fortune (and you can only imagine what that entails). And thus, our game begins.
The Hunt, as the contest came to be known, quickly wove its way into global culture. Like winning the lottery, finding Halliday’s Easter egg became a popular fantasy among adults and children alike. It was a game anyone could play, and at first, there seemed to be no right or wrong way to play it.
To find the Easter egg, players of the OASIS must find three keys that unlock three consecutive gates leading to the ultimate treasure. However, finding those keys is not an easy task – they are hidden behind riddles that get progressively harder as the game advances. Thanks to sudden fame brought to him by finding the first key (five years after the Hunt started), Wade catches the attention of Nolan Sorrento, who wants the egg for himself; after Wade refuses his offer, Sorrento deals him a personal blow as a consequence.
Three hidden keys open three secret gates
Wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits
And those with the skill to survive these straits
Will reach The End where the prize awaits
Five months later, the second key is found, but the High Five doesn’t know that Sorrento is using shortcuts and cheats to gain the upper hand in the games. As a result of his schemes, he turns the Anorak’s castle (where the third gate is hidden) into an impenetrable fortress so that no one can access it and solve the last game. Over the next few chapters, we see Wade get arrested, then planning an escape, and lastly getting a real-life meetup with someone very important to him.
I was ready to rock. My avatar was buffed to the eyeballs and armed to the teeth. I was packing as many magic items and as much firepower as I could squeeze into my inventory. Everything was in place. Our plan was in motion. It was time to go.
And then, we have the ending – the boss battle, which basically every video game has in one way or another. Our main boy Wade manages to bring down the force field, and leads the invasion of the fortress.
“But who won?“, you might ask. Well, I guess you’ll have to play the game and find out for yourself!
WHY SHOULD YOU READ THIS?
If “video games brought to life“ isn’t enough of an incentive for you to read this novel, the pop-culture references might peak your interest. Allow me to warn you, though – there’s a lot of them. You know that scene in The Avengers where Captain America says “I understood that reference!“?
Or the scene from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood where Leonardo DiCaprio points at the TV?
Yeah, that’s gonna be you every few minutes because the novel is loaded with tributes to various pieces of modern history – 80s movies, music, TV shows… from even the most obscure ones, to the ones literally every person knows (or should know, but who am I to judge).
As the reviewers said, at least the ones who had good things to say about the novel, it’s fun and it’s engaging. The plot is not forced and it’s easy to read, even if you don’t know anything about newer video games and your knowledge doesn’t extend farther than Windows 98 Solitaire, Pinball and Minesweeper. Truth be told, we all started with those, didn’t we?
To me, it was so well written that it made me want to join the main characters in their hunt for the Easter egg, and hopefully it will be at least half as good for you as it was for me.
The Facts were right there waiting for me, hidden in old books written by people who weren’t afraid to be honest.
