READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline (Crown Publishers, 2011): A Review by Tom Lyford
2044 AD. Our global civilization is hitting the downhill skids toward collapse. The newscasts, filled with stories detailing the ongoing energy crisis; catastrophic climate change; half a dozen wars; plus widespread famine and poverty with most of the downtrodden masses squatting in “the stacks”— think of shanty towns, squatter settlements, and refugee camps, but in this case strange “trailer parks” where rusty trailers, RVs, boxcars, and old VW microbuses are stacked one-on-top-of-the-other twenty or more wobbly units high.
Wade Watts, our young protagonist, lives in Aunt Alice’s 3-bedroom trailer. It is precariously wedged between the twenty trailers below it and those stacked above. A dozen souls share this living space, so Wade has to sleep like a cat on the floor in the cramped space behind the clothes dryer. Mornings, when Wade leaves the trailer to stretch his legs for a stroll, it goes like this: “I slipped out the (bathroom) window as quietly as possible and, clutching the bottom of the window frame, slid down the cold surface of the trailer’s metal siding… From there I was able to descend the ladder-like frame of the scaffolding… A rickety metal staircase was bolted to the side of the stack, but it shook and knocked against the scaffolding, so I couldn’t use it without announcing my presence. Bad news. In the stacks, it was best to avoid being heard or seen, whenever possible. There were often dangerous and desperate people about—the sort who would rob you and rape you, and then sell your organs on the black market… Descending the network of metal girders had always reminded me of old platform video games like Donkey Kong or Burger Time.”
The references to Donkey Kong and Burger Time provide an apt segue to what this sci-fi/adventure/thriller/quest novel/love story is all about: the pop culture of the 1980s and the history of computer games. But what, you may rightly ask (as I did), could a novel set in 2044 have to do with the likes of Betamax VCRs and LaserDisc players, movies such as Blade Runner and War Games, TV’s Max Headroom and Family Ties, or Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and Devo’s “Whip it”? Good question. Tough question to answer though. But allow me to try.
In 2019 our social technology has become so addictive that sizable portions of us already seek psychological ‘escapist outlets’ from daily stresses by Googling, Facebooking, streaming, texting, tweeting, and/or gaming our waking hours away. Ready Player One poses possible answers to the question, ‘Where, and how far, is this all going?’ Author Ernest Cline speculates that computer simulations will continue to become so increasingly immersive and mesmerizing that by 2044 they will have become the “opiate of the masses” that will have virtually replaced our “lives of quiet desperation” with 3-D imaginary simulations.
James Halliday, the reclusive billionaire/game-software-designer born in 1972 (revered around the world as practically a god), created OASIS, the massively multiplayer on-line game platform that has gradually evolved into the globally networked virtual reality system most of humanity uses on a daily basis. Now almost everyone vicariously “lives” a colorful super hero’s life through the creation of his/her own computer-generated avatar and the virtual comic book “world” it inhabits, even though in reality he/she is actually just languishing on a ratty couch somewhere back in the stacks.
Wade, though virginal, shy, somewhat overweight, and painfully self-conscious about his appearance, has named his heavily muscled and handsome avatar ‘Parzival.’ Parzival often hangs out in a private chatroom with ‘H’ (spelled Aech), his BFF’s equally buff avatar. And like most best “friends” in 2044, Parzival and Aech have never met each other in person, so neither really knows the age or sex of the other, what the other actually looks like, or even where on the globe the other one lives. Consequently (for all Wade knows), Aech’s young, macho dude avatar could possibly be the “mask” of some 79 year old, one-eyed, female prison guard name Bertha. Scary? Yes. And sometimes they do wonder about this.
Anyway, back to the plot. Upon his sudden death, a self-produced video of James Halliday spelling out the details of his last will and testament is released world-wide over the OASIS channel. “My entire estate, including a controlling share of stock in my company, is to be placed in escrow until such time as a single condition I have set forth in my will is met. The first individual to meet that condition will inherit my entire fortune, currently valued in excess of two hundred and forty billion dollars.” The single condition of the will turns out to be the winning of a cyberworld treasure hunt, a situation somewhat reminiscent of finding the golden Willy Wonka coupon in your chocolate bar. “Before I died, I created an ‘Easter egg,’ and hid it somewhere inside my most popular video game— the OASIS. The first person to find my Easter egg will inherit my entire fortune.”
And so The Hunt is on. And naturally our hero wants to win. BUT…
There are just a few obstacles to contend with. Like the sheer and almost infinite size of the OASIS “universe” itself. Like the fact that the entire population of Earth, like Wade, will also be enthusiastically in on The Hunt. Like the fact that, to win, contenders will have to know everything there is to know about 80’s pop culture in order to understand the riddles Halliday has planted throughout the OASIS: Alice-in-Wonderland type clues requiring an in-depth knowledge of the pop songs, literature, movies, TV shows, cartoons, video games, and computers of the 80s he was so obsessed with. And how about the fact that Wade and everybody else on the planet already IS an expert, 1980’s, pop culture cultist anyway, since Halliday’s OASIS is an entire, nostalgic re-creation of all of his own childhood’s 80s’ memories. And last but not least: the hard, cold fact that the second most powerful corporation on the planet, IOI (Innovative Online Industries), has already amassed a militaristic army of 1980s-scholar-mercenaries already scouring OASIS to insure the win, the future plan being to regulate and tax the heretofore totally free OASIS experience.
So… the lone wolf questers, like Wade, really won’t stand much of a chance.
I found this a surprisingly engaging and fun read. Even for me at age 73, a willing suspension of disbelief was easy once I wrapped my head around the fact that Cline’s well-developed characters are seen through their avatars in a cyber world. But no fear, the real, physical world keeps popping up as well. And as I alluded to earlier, this is also a heartfelt love story.
The book was written in 2011, but you will find it in our “New” section as it is new to us. The movie version came out in 2018, but (spoiler alert) the book is ever so much better, and more complete, than the movie, Surprise, surprise…