eBook, 384 pages
English language
Published March 10, 2014 by Crown Publishing Group.
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 …
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?
To be honest it's been a while since I read the book so don't expect a full in depht review. Sorry.
I liked it, quite a lot indeed. I also enjoy playing video games and 90% of the action occours on a video game. I think that, as always, the book is quite superior compared to the movie.
In conclussion: I recomend it if you like cifi stuff.
Si eres una persona que a vivido la experiencia de un mundo virtual como Second Life, Osgrid(OpenSim) o otro este libro te va a encantar.
Soy un residente del mundo virtual Second Life y este libro me hizo sentir muy identificado. Esto es el futuro
A fun book that brings a video game to life. I read very little fiction but I thoroughly enjoyed this. The author is creative and has some fun twists on the combination of the real word with the game world.
One takeaway was the comparison of our pandemic school vs. the OASIS school. The contrast emphasizes that the pandemic move of school online was nothing more than adding a remote broadcast. Despite the incredible opportunity, we didn't innovate or re-invent. We just started lecturing through a computer screen.
You'd think I'd love this: I've played joust and zork and programed in BASIC and have feelings about THACO. And, well, I think I would have loved this had I read it in 2011, when it first came out, but in the last 9 years my tolerance for self-absorbed men who don't see women as human beings has deteriorated. You see, I've been a computer scientist while being a woman. You know that guy who begrudgingly tolerates you as long as you mind your place while he objectifies women, don't challenge his litany of his geeky obsessions and self-aggrandizing behavior? What if that guy wrote a not very well-written book (plot holes you could drive a spaceship through!), in which a thinly veiled version of himself was the main character, who became rich and famous for his geeky obsessions and then he became a multimillionaire? Yeah...
Nine years later it still holds up as a great exercise in fun SF world building. Cline isn't a particularly gifted writer from a technical perspective, and some of the middle part is cringey but it is important to note that this is a book for children.
Eight years later, I needed to reread this slice of science fiction bacon, in anticipation of the sequel that comes out in November.
I just can't get into this book. The premise is corny, and reads like a screenplay. Maybe it's because I actually know what goes into building virtual worlds. Sure, lone-programmers built entire games--in the Atari era--but today games are built by teams of THOUSANDS of programmers, each toiling on a minute detail. People get famous developing techniques for animating hair, but nobody builds entire games all by themselves. Even if they do they must use tools developed by thousands more developers. Easter eggs are ferreted out by decompiling and analyzing source code. A process that's not nearly as glamorous as pouring over '80 pop culture for clues. Everything about the world this is set in is disorienting and hard to follow. You're never quite sure what the rules are, and without any visuals to back it up you're lost. I'm sure the movie is better, though I've not seen that …
I just can't get into this book. The premise is corny, and reads like a screenplay. Maybe it's because I actually know what goes into building virtual worlds. Sure, lone-programmers built entire games--in the Atari era--but today games are built by teams of THOUSANDS of programmers, each toiling on a minute detail. People get famous developing techniques for animating hair, but nobody builds entire games all by themselves. Even if they do they must use tools developed by thousands more developers. Easter eggs are ferreted out by decompiling and analyzing source code. A process that's not nearly as glamorous as pouring over '80 pop culture for clues. Everything about the world this is set in is disorienting and hard to follow. You're never quite sure what the rules are, and without any visuals to back it up you're lost. I'm sure the movie is better, though I've not seen that yet.
This was a reasonably fun read, but not exactly well written. You know when a puzzle takes years in a book to solve, but then you read it once and think "it can't be that obvious" and then it is? Yeah, the first clue was a bit mediocre and that doesn't even get into the annoying protagonist, the comically evil villain, the autistic overexplanation of every reference and joke, and the predictable self-insert wish fulfillment of a plot.
But in spite of it being pretty bad, I was entertained. The references are nostalgic, the game system is typical of the genre but sounds fun, and the weird details in the worldbuilding were entertaining.
I'd give it one star for the writing and three for the entertainment value, so... let's peg it at a two overall.
Probably the cheesiest book I've ever read.
This is one that I have listened to many times, and did it again this past week - love it! Love all the pop culture references, and even I have had to google some at first even though I was a kid in the 80s. And I'm one of those people that I'm fairly certain is few in number that like both the book and the movie. Yes, they are pretty different in execution, and different in the pop culture icons that are used (mostly 90s for the movie), but they both keep the same points and lessons, which is the most important part - but you have to decide if you agree with that yourselves, obviously. :D
Entertaining quick read (if you like this genre). Although felt a bit like it was written for the movie rights...
Amazing book. Simultaneously SciFi and full of 80s references.
For someone in my generation, spending the 80s as a teenager, this was a fun and nostalgic ride. Looking forward to seeing the movie...
despite being so naïve, it's still a fun read.
