eBook, 384 pages
English language
Published March 10, 2014 by Crown Publishing Group.
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.
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 …
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.
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?
I read this when it was new, and thought it had some interesting ideas and was a fun trip down memory lane. But over time I kept seeing people point out problems, and I'd think back, and realize, yeah, there's not a whole lot of substance there, and it's got some serious issues.
Back then, the nostalgia and scavenger hunt were enough for me. Now, not so much.
Cross-posted from my website.
A great story regarding a late teen engaging in a video game quest with real-world impact. Set in a dystopian future, the tale gives you a blend of a virtual world learing to positive and meaningful real-life changes.
The story is told with enthusiasm and gives you a great insight into a late teen learning there is more to life than a virtual world. It also teaches you persistance, may lead to mindblowing results.
Even though I didn't much like it, I did actually finish it, which is worth an extra star.
//read in 2012
An enjoyable and quick read. Nostalgia is bound together by a fairly predictable plot line. I wanted to go back and create a playlist of all the music mentioned, but I borrowed the book from a co-worker and needed to return it.
To be honest it's been a while since I read the book so don't expect a full in depht review. Sorry.
I liked it, quite a lot indeed. I also enjoy playing video games and 90% of the action occours on a video game. I think that, as always, the book is quite superior compared to the movie.
In conclussion: I recomend it if you like cifi stuff.
Absolutely great book about the 80s, video games, movies, music and more. You will love it, even if you weren't part of that time.
I liked a lot about this book.
The basic premise was intriguing: a rich computer nerd leaves, in his will, all his fortune and control of his company to whomever can solve a puzzle he built into his immersive World of Warcraft/Second Life style game. But to solve the puzzle, you have to know about the video games and pop culture from sixty years ago.
For the most part, I really liked the characters as well. There was a clear hero who was likable and easy to root for. There was a clear villain whom you loved to hate. And there were lovable sidekicks and a love interest. A pretty standard recipe, but a time-tested one.
And what I lived the most was the nostalgia. I'm a little younger than the author, but all the games he mentioned were the ones I grew up playing as a child. I was …
I liked a lot about this book.
The basic premise was intriguing: a rich computer nerd leaves, in his will, all his fortune and control of his company to whomever can solve a puzzle he built into his immersive World of Warcraft/Second Life style game. But to solve the puzzle, you have to know about the video games and pop culture from sixty years ago.
For the most part, I really liked the characters as well. There was a clear hero who was likable and easy to root for. There was a clear villain whom you loved to hate. And there were lovable sidekicks and a love interest. A pretty standard recipe, but a time-tested one.
And what I lived the most was the nostalgia. I'm a little younger than the author, but all the games he mentioned were the ones I grew up playing as a child. I was brought back to long nights playing Pitfall with my dad on our Commodore 64. It was nice.
And the description of this online world, OASIS, was amazing. I want to play this game so badly.
There were a few parts that didn't work well, though. For example, the characters' ability to solve the risks were terribly inconsistent. One riddle that should have been terribly obvious and shouldn't have taken more than three minutes to solve (and took me about ten seconds) took five years and only two people in the entire world were able to figure it out with no help. While wildly obscure riddles that should take months or even years of research are solvable in mere seconds.
The other thing that really was unbelievable for me was the amount of research these people were able to do. All of the things that Wade claims to have read, listened to, watched, and played would have taken half a lifetime, but he did it in five years. It's physically impossible. And it really bugged me the whole time I was reading.
If it hadn't've been for those two things, I would've given it four stars.
