READY PLAYER ONE

 

By Ernest Cline

In year 2045, James Hallaway, a multimillionaire and lonely man, dies without leaving offspring to whom to leave his inheritance worth several billions of dollars.

Hallaway and Morrow owned a programming company that created OASIS, a virtual world in which you can do the same as in real life or even things you can’t do.

OASIS simulated the reality with an outstanding accuracy that many people spent more time inside the virtual world rather in real life. Many teenagers attended their classes in the virtual world. Due to that, people became more and more solitary and social interactions were relegated to a minor role in society.

Hallaway, as I stated before, was a lonely man and spent most of his time alone. The day he dies, an Avatar called Anorak announces his death and the way to get his inheritance.

Anorak, being an avatar adopting the form of a sorcerer, summoned the entire world to the quest of the three keys. One made of copper, another made of Jade and the last and the definitive, the Crystal key. The winner will receive Hallaway’s fortune and the company.

But the quest is far from being easy. In fact, the keys are hidden in the OASIS world. Fortunately, for finding each of the keys, gunters (that’s how the people in the quest are called) have the help of a riddle. Each of them were a clue to find each key. By solving them, gunters will know were to go and what to do to get the key.

When I started reading the book I was a bit disappointed because I thought the author makes a spoiler of the plot. However, in the very first pages you understand the purpose of the spoiler.

I really enjoyed the book because I lived the 80’s and I was very familiar with the references to cinema, music, games and computers of that era you can find in the novel.