Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Synopsis:
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...

Review:
This is going to be a hard review for me to do. Mainly because I loved this book. I loved it so much . . . I kind of want to marry it :-) Seriously though, this book had to have been written by a nerd. I happen to like nerds. I married one, and I happen to be one myself. That being said, I don't think you have to be a hard-core video game loving geek to really enjoy Ready Player One.

The hero of this story is Wade Watts, or as his OASIS avatar is known, Perzival. I liked this book for many reasons, but this character is one of the biggest. He is like a real person. He does and thinks and feels the things you would really feel. He's just like so many boys his age that live in our very own world. I loved seeing how he evolved throughout the story from being unsure of himself socially to being a total kick-ass, confident dude.

I loved that the world was so much like our own. I didn't think of it as science fiction really but more like a fictional glimpse into what our future could look like. It is a totally believable and awesome premise. The real world has gone to crap, and people pretty much live their lives in the OASIS. The OASIS is a haven for people to escape their dull, depressing lives.

If you are worried that you have to be well-versed in video games or technology to like this book, you don't! I promise! The story and characters alone are so good that you won't be able to put it down. BUT, if you happen to be a video-game loving dork then I think this book will hold a special place in your heart. I have to say I gave myself a pat on the back for getting the 'chaotic neutral' reference in one of the dialogue exchanges :-) Although I really have my husband to thank for that one since he's mainly responsible for all the geeky things I know and like!

I just can't do this book justice, so you really have to read it for yourself. I have been telling everyone how they have to read this book or I'll be mad at them forever. Ready Player One jumped up into my top ten favorite books . . . and those are some lofty titles I have in there. I don't dethrone books on that list for any old book that comes along :-)

Read it! You won't be disappointed.

Publication Date: August 16, 2011
Genre: Science Fiction
Source: Thanks to Crown Publishers and Netgalley.