Most fun book read in a while. Ready Player One.

While checking out from the local book depository I had the ever popular check out encounter. You know where they inquire about joining their card club, ask for some donation or other bit of general shenanigans. This time was different though. I was being profiled by the employee and he figured that I might like a novel that he was pimping.

The sheer arrogance of this guy! How does he know what I like? How dare he push a novel upon me! I mean what do you think a guy buying a Star Wars novel and Deadpool trades might enjoy?! The audacity!

I listened to his spiel, mostly because he hadn’t handed my books over to me. it kept me from just thumbing my nose and walking away. He was talking up Ready Player One, a novel I was completely unaware. After his bit (and a quick inspection of the book) I added it to my purchases. Why? Well he described it as an 80’s pop culture and gaming scavenger hunt through a gigundus MMO style computer simulation/game.

Ok, you got me. It also helped that I read the synopsis, and discovered it sounded damn interesting. Well was it?

Yes.

Ready Player One is set, of course, in a near dystopian future. All the poverty, political and environmental bad stuff is happening. The good news, well there is a computer network called the OASIS that makes everything better. The OASIS is a giant on-line world that took off from a simple MMO. What was once a game world is now a thriving universe of shopping, politics, education, economics and of course gaming. Everyone who logs-in has their own avatar and they can work and play in this simulated world. In the OASIS there is nothing that is not possible. There are thousands of worlds to explore and level your avatar, or go to school, work, etc.

Now take this giant on-line endless simulation and add in a treasure hunt. See one of the two original OASIS developers died and left a series of keys hidden within the simulation. These keys open gates that lead you to the vast sums of wealth he left behind after death. Even better is the fact that is that this guy, James Halliday, is not only an uber nerd and computer wiz, but he is also a devotee of all things 80’s. He is a fanatic about the music, culture, movies and of course games (mostly video and RPG) of the era. Why is this great? Well his little treasure hunt is steeped in the minutia from the era of big hair and spandex. This means everyone hunting for One Eyed Willie’s rich stuff has gorged themselves on all things 1980-1989.

Then you add in a simple late teenage protagonist Wade (or Parzavil his on-line avatar) with a life of crap (much like a farm boy from Tatooine or teenager trapped in a trailer park) discovers the first key and then the story just goes bonkers from there. Then throw in an awkward crush that is also in the treasure hunt, a giant faceless corporation (much like the Empire or the Kodan Armada) who wants the treasure to claim control of the OASIS, a close friend turned rival and  thousands of others searching for the on-line treasure trove and you get the crux of this story.

There is a lot going on in this tale. There is the obligatory social commentary whether this is the writers’ own thoughts or not I’m not sure, but it is there. I guess since this is sci-fi it has to be there right? You have the typical nerd over obsession with an item, idea, person, movie, song, game etc. There is the open giant computer world with its endless possibilities. Then there is this treasure hunt that goes from fun to deadly, who didn’t see that eventually happening? All set against an homage to the 1980’s.

I like so totally, radical, awesome, tubular, bodacious liked this book. I’ll have to give the book depository servitor my thanks the next time I see him. He steered me toward a great read. Well great if you love quarter munchers, John Hughes, punk-pop-hair metal, table top RPGs, and obscure references that you and the inner circle get and others don’t. A sci-fi story that is actually fun (albeit a bit predictable)and a jog down a fluorescent orange and neon lit, cardboard covered, beat box lane many of us have forced ourselves to forget.