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Ready Player One

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Ready Player One
Cover to the first printing
AuthorErnest Cline
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherRandom House
Publication date
16 August 2011
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages384
ISBN[[Special:BookSources/0307887436X+%5B%5BCategory%3AArticles+with+invalid+ISBNs%5D%5D |0307887436X ]] Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

Ready Player One is a science fiction novel by Ernest Cline. The book was published by Random House on August 16, 2011.[1] The audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton (who is himself a minor character in the novel). In 2012, the book received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association [2] and was nominated for the Prometheus Award [3].

Warner Bros. bought the rights to the film in June 2010.[4]

Plot summary

The year is 2044 and the world is in near-ruins. The Great Recession has taken its toll on the world's economy, and resources are scarce. The Internet and gaming culture have evolved into a creation known as OASIS, a massive multiplayer online simulation game created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow of Gregarious Simulation Systems (GSS), formerly known as Gregarious Games. Halliday, with no heirs or other living family, dies suddenly and leaves a video will to those in OASIS and a book that was dubbed Anorak's Almanac, which purports to be a volume written by James Halliday's avatar Anorak in OASIS. The video says that whomever can collect three keys (Copper, Jade, and Crystal) that are hidden throughout the universe of OASIS and pass through the matching gates will receive his fortune and controlling stake in GSS. This becomes known as the Hunt and people immediately begin the search for Halliday's "egg," a reference to the first "Easter egg" in video game culture in the game Adventure.

Characters

  • Wade Owen Watts/Parzival — the protagonist, a poor orphan from the "stacks" surrounding metropolitan Oklahoma. Wade names his OASIS character Parzival after Percival, the Arthurian knight famous for his quest for the grail, and dedicates his life to finding James Halliday's Easter egg.
  • Aech — Wade's best friend, fellow gunter, and rival in the quest to find the egg.
  • Samantha/Art3mis — a famous gunter and blogger, Wade has a huge cyber-crush on her, which is complicated by their competition in search of the egg.
  • Nolan Sorrento/IOI-#655321 — a high-ranking official of Innovative Online Industries, the multinational corporation that serves as an Internet service provider for most of the world and hopes to take over and monetize the OASIS. Sorrento is head of IOI's Oology (the science of searching for Halliday's Easter egg) Division, and serves as the primary antagonist of the novel.
  • Toshiro Yoshiaki/Daito and Akihide/Shoto — Japanese gunters who work as a team in their quest for the egg, they have a generally tense, sometimes-friendly relationship with Wade, Aech, and Art3mis.
  • James Donovan Halliday/Anorak — creator of OASIS. (He is based on the personalities of Howard Hughes and Richard Garriott[5][6])
  • Ogden Morrow/Og — Co-creator of the OASIS and best friend of James Halliday. He is among the few in the world who is rich and can afford luxuries that most people cannot. Despite this, he is humble and respects his deceased friend's game and the hunt for the egg. He married his high school sweetheart with whom Halliday was also smitten.

Pop culture references in the novel

Games referenced in the book

Games played in the simulation

Home computers and Video game consoles referenced in the simulation

References in the book cover

Movies referenced in the simulation

Music referenced in the simulation

Anime and tokusatsu reference in the simulation

TV Show references in the novel

Literature references in the simulation

Reception

  • The New York Times says "The book gets off to a witty start" but then complains that it lacks at least one dimension, stating that gaming had overwhelmed everything else about this book.[7]
  • USA Today states "This novel undoubtedly qualifies Cline as the hottest geek on the planet right now."[8]
  • NPR claims that "Ready Player One is ridiculously fun and large-hearted". Cline "takes a far-out premise and engages the reader instantly" with a "deeply felt narrative makes it almost impossible to stop turning the pages".[9]

Easter Egg hunt

Ten months after the first edition release, Cline revealed on his blog that Ready Player One itself contained an elaborately hidden easter egg. This clue will form the first part of a series of staged video gaming tests, similar to the plot of the novel. Cline also revealed that the competition's grand prize would be a DeLorean.[10]

References

  1. ^ "Ready Player One by Ernest Cline". Random House Publishers. 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ "YALSA's Alex Awards". American Library Association. 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Libertarian Futurist Society. "PROMETHEUS AWARD FINALISTS ANNOUNCED". Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  4. ^ Billington, Alex (June 18, 2010). "WB Picks Up Ernie Cline's New Geek Novel 'Ready Player One'". [1]. Retrieved September 12, 2011. {{cite news}}: External link in |newspaper= (help)
  5. ^ "How Lord British Inspired Anorak | Ernie's Blog". Ernestcline.com. 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
  6. ^ Sims, Tony (June 22, 2011). "A Few Minutes With Fanboys Writer Ernest Cline on Ready Player One". Wired.
  7. ^ Maslin, Janet (August 14, 2011). "'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline - Review". The New York Times.
  8. ^ "Most Popular E-mail Newsletter". USA Today. August 19, 2011.
  9. ^ Schaub, Michael (2011-08-22). "'Player One': A Winning, Geeked-Out Page-Turner". NPR. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
  10. ^ "Three Hidden Keys Open Three Secret Gates | Ernie's Blog". Ernestcline.com. 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
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