Ready Player One - Book Review

Ready Player One , by Ernest Cline, is a SF book that takes place in 2044. Things got really messed up, with global warming, energy and food shortages, and widespread poverty is the norm.

The one thing that keep most people going is OASIS - a VR simulation with thousands of words, accessed through haptic gloves and laser goggles (which immediately remind me of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash), as well as more advanced hardware. Even schools are available through the VR network.

The creator of OASIS died a few years ago, and left all he owned to the winner of a contest - the first to go through a number of puzzles based on 80s games and culture, wins the control of the company as well as a 240 billion dollars.

Naturally, everyone is trying to get it. And that is where the story starts, with a poor teenager who knows everything about the 80s games, music, movies and series. He is to be the first to decode the first clue... And then the race to finish is on.

I really loved this book. It is not my favorite this year, but it comes pretty close. Plenty of 80s game, music, movie and series references, and a lot of VR action in a dystopian Earth.

Very cool, and strongly recommended.

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