For too long I've had Ready Player One by Ernest Cline on my shelf to read. Actually it was on my virtual "to-read" shelf for a couple of years and then I bought it and put it on my physical "to-read" shelf hoping that would help me get to it sooner, but it still sat there for nearly a year. Finally I could wait no longer. With the film being released I wanted to get it read before it left theaters. Ready Player One follows Wade Watts, a gunter (or Egg Hunter) searching for the clues in a colossal virtual scavenger hunt where the prize is basically the entire internet. This scavenger hunt has been created by a videogame expert who is obsessed with the 1980s. This obsession plays an integral part in the hunt, requiring any gunter worth his or her salt to be familiar with every tiny bit of '8os minutiae.
This book will highly appeal to anyone who spent time in front of an Apple IIe or an Atari 800XL. '80s kids will love all the television and movie references. Anyone who enjoys role playing games is sure to appreciate all of the D&D module mentions. I was alive in the '80s, but I really consider myself more of a '90s kid. The television and movie references I mostly got until the author entered into obscure Japanese Manga; then I was lost. I didn't play video games or D&D either, but I understood their purpose in the book. I can see how my teenage son would like it, too. He's going to read it next.
Honestly, there were times that I skimmed a few paragraphs when it got too detailed about the technical aspects of the games. Otherwise, I found this book very exciting and difficult to put down. A friend said her husband called it the best book he's ever read. I don't think it affected me quite like it did him, but it was good. I'm excited to see how they did with the film version.
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