Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Year Published: 2011
Narrator: Wil Wheaton
Audiobook Length: 15 hours 46 minutes
Synopsis: 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?
Why?: I finally got an Audible subscription. It makes a lot of sense with my line of work and I'm so excited to start listening to books. After much browsing, I picked Ready Player One not only because I've heard amazing things about the book, but also because Wil Wheaton narrates. The book is about a near future where there's an epic virtual world that has pretty much become the new internet. The creator of this program dies and leaves behind a game involving riddles in which the winner will earn the creator's inheritance. I've heard there are a lot of 80's pop culture and nerd culture references. I hope I get the references and if not, I'm excited to learn about the decade I was born in but barely experienced.
Expectations: I'm expecting a fun and nerdy adventure through 80's references. I'm expecting an interesting take on the future.
Judging a book by its cover: This cover is very simple. The colors are bold. I like the 8-bit player and the key. It reminds me of the game Chip.
--PAUL
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