The Amateur Writer

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. 

A world at stake. 
A quest for the ultimate prize. 
Are you ready?
Thoughts:

I first heard of Ready Player One from Priscilla of TheReadables where she bought the book. I watched the video where she featured the book in one of her book haul videos but never really gave it much thought when I found out it is a science fiction. Now, if you know me I'm just not into anything technology related. I always believe that I can never understand a thing if they start putting in those technological terms and such. I'm simply terrified of science fiction basically. Right but what made me pick up Ready Player One?

Note: I didn't know it was one of the most raved books of 2011.

It's a book about video games. I LOVE VIDEO GAMES! I like the whole notion where you can just get lost inside this virtual world and it seemed as if reality just stopped. I love that feeling! It brought back memories when I was fourteen and I was playing Final Fantasy X during school holidays.

 I also love the idea of a worldwide race to find this easter egg. I was pretty much curious how did this nobody Wade can find the first clue?

Now onto the actual review of the book:

If video games is not your thing and you're a science fiction virgin, fear not because Ready Player One (RPO) will guide you through it. The first few chapters of the book are pretty much dedicated to the world building of the story. There's even footnotes!! << My mind was pretty much blown at this point. I'm not really bothered with world building (but it is ESSENTIAL to your reading of RPO) because half the stuff is what I already know so it is a TINCY BIT tedious for me. I was just really ready to get straight into the action! Haha.

The start of the book is a bit slow for me but when Wade starts figuring out the location of the first key, things pretty much rolled from there on. I got really excited around Chapter 12 and at that point, I can't stop reading. It is so good and intense. Just the spirit of the competition is freaking crazy.

This is kind of weird but how cool is the title? I can never not say it without using this epic tone where you hear every time you start a new game. READY.PLAYER.ONE!

I'm not going to share with you my favourite scenes or whatnot because you have to give RPO a shot. It is very different from what I've read so far and based on my limited science fiction knowledge, this has got to be the most original. The characters are nothing special in my opinion. They're not bad but they're nothing special either. I believe RPO's biggest appeal is the competition to find Halliday's prize. The plot development is simply amazing and original. I can never expect what would happen next.


The Verdict: 5 out of 5


Obsession Rating: 4 out of 5
(Look out for my explanation for this rating under my book reviews tab on the sidebar)