Review: Ready Player One

Original, charming and geeky. Ernst Cline’s debut novel is a nostalgic yet futuristic joyride through 1980’s popculture, and the rising promience of virtual realiety. Readers will love following the heart on their sleeves protagonist, as they embark on a quest to keep the virtual world he loves and to salvage what’s left of his real world.

This innovatively entertaining piece of science fiction from Cline, has all the elements of a action packed dramatic journey into the future of technology, with a intelligently weaved plot and relatable characters with big hearts and insightful minds. It all begins in the year 2044, the world has been devestated by climate change, outused its resources and diease and povety have struck down. The only way to escape your dull diaster striken reality is through the Oasis, a global virtual reality, where most people spend their time in a utopia they can only dream off. anything you can do in the real world, you can do in the Oasis. The Oasis was the brainchild of James Haliday, when he died he launched the ultimate quest, as his final wish. If a person’s avator completed three demanding challenges, based on his life and the eighties culture he lived in, to win three keys within the Oasis, they will win Haliday’s fortune and total control of the Oasis. For years no one had passed the first challenge, until Wade Wyatts.

Wade (or Pezival as he’s known in the Oasis) is a devoted fan of Haliday’s and has spent countless afternoons studying his life. His devotion pays off, as he discovers a clue in the alamac (an archive of Haliday’s memory) and cracks the first challenge. When the IO1 (the second biggest tech company in the world after the Oasis) discover Pezival and his friends are heading up the long forgotten leaderbeard for Haliday’s quest; they relaise their plans to overtake the Oasis for themselves, and turn it into an elitist commerical resource are slipping out of reach, and the competition is on. A competition that will take on frightening real world diemsions for Wade, forever changing Wade and the life he once knew. Reader Player One is an part dystopian drama and part professional gamer adventure that any science fiction fan will love.

Reader Player One, though it is a word based novel, it is also a visual novel. It grabs the reader’s imagination and gets them to really visualise the characters and settings, as they read along; especially as the novel switches between the real world and the Oasis. The difference between these two words is brought to life in the novel through vivid details and emotionally and digitally descriptive language, that makes you feel as if you are making the switch between the real world and the Oasis as the characters themselves.

The plot also introduces us to the protagonist, Wade Wyatts, a geeky Gunther (someone who still attempts to win Haliday’s quest), who lives most of his life in the Oasis, to escape from his mind numbing reality. Wade represents a male protagonist, who is in touch with his emotions and isn’t afraid to express them, despite what the outcome may be. He puts his heart on the line for love (he has a crush on the strong minded witty Artemesis or Samantha as she’s known in the real world). Samantha is a strong intelligent character with a intriguing personality in her own right. She is hesitant to put herself out there, for fear people will judge her looks and as she’s already been through so much in the real world. But she slowly begins to warm up to Wade, and she gets him to see that despite the struggles of everyday life, there can be happiness in it too.

Every character in Wades team of gunthers, are putting their hearts and lives on the line for the Oasis as well as for their friendship (Wade gets to meet his truest friend H in the real world) as he teams up with his fellow gunthers to prevent the IOO from winning the Haliday contenst. The themes of mental health and identity are very present in the novel, as Wade and his friends get closer to securing their future, they learn to accept themselves, as they mature and start to overcome the obstacles in their way, by expressing their feelings, as the Oasis has taught them the benefits of letting themselves feel and express their emotions.

After all, as Wade comments “The Facts were right there waiting for me, hidden in old books written by people who weren’t afraid to be honest”. This comments shows Wade’s personal growth as he realises he had it in him to win the quest and achieve the life he wants, he just had to be honest with himself and with others. In the end, Wade and his friends (known as the High Five) are finally at peace with who they are, their emotions and their new lives, particularly Wade as “for the first time in as long as [he] could remember, [he] had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS.” He comes to relaise that what he truly desired to be happy is now in the real world, and it’s time he began to take risks and go on adventures in the real world too.