Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Book Review

I grew up about 10 years too late and on the wrong side of the world to fully appreciate Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – but it was a really fun, fresh, and fascinating novel.

The book set in 2030 where everyone spends all their time digitally immersed online to escape the awful dystopia outside.

The economy is dominated by just 2 online firms – and one firm’s eccentric founder dies leaving his fortune to whomever can solve a treasure hunt involving riddles and trivia centered around the 1980s American geek sub-culture.

Which in turn creates a whole new subculture of people who make a full-time living just hunting for “Hallidays’ Egg.”

The book takes a bit to get going – and it wanders a bit in the middle, but overall it’s a fast moving engaging story that made me really think about the world we are currently in right now (where what is actually not real is becoming the real – and the outside world is the illusion) – and provided several hours of entertainment.

It also had one of the best miniature sub-plot twists towards the end that I’ve ever read.

Anyway, not much else to say without giving away plot.

If you are a fan of the 1980s, geek subculture, or just a unique treasure hunting story – Ready Player One would be a really good read.