Here's a short synopsis of Ready Player One, with NO spoilers (you're welcome). Along with that, is a short, very basic review of the movie. I'm no pro, but I do love books and movies!
Ready Player One is set in a dystopian not-too-distant future. Life in 2044 is not awesome. Society has collapsed into war, the environment has been ruined, the economy has tanked, people are starving, but there is is one shining beacon amidst all the chaos and poverty: the Oasis. The Oasis, created by technological genius, James Halliday, is the ultimate virtual reality video game. Players are immersed in a completely different world, even attending virtual school there and buying virtual real estate and businesses.
Meet our hero, Wade Watts. Or, as he's known in the Oasis, Parzival. He's a high school senior from Chicago, who is also a die-hard Gunter.
Now, let's back things up five years. James Halliday has just died, and upon his death a video is released to the entire world containing his will. The video is cryptic and filled with references to 1908's pop-culture, during which time Halliday was a teenager. In this video, Halliday tells the world that he has hidden an "Easter egg" somewhere in the Oasis, and whoever finds it will inherit his entire fortune as well as complete control of the Oasis. He included the first clue to find the egg, and consequently, the world went crazy for a while. Everyone and their dog wanted to find the egg. The most fanatical ones became Egg Hunters, or, "Gunters." They researched Halliday's life; his favorite video games, his favorite movies, trivia about his life, and everything you could possibly want to know about a person, hoping that all this knowledge would help them find the egg. They lived for finding this egg.
When we jump back to the present, it has been five whole years, and no one has figured out the first clue yet. Wade's life in the real world is pretty crappy, and, let's face it, his life as Parzival in the Oasis is infinitely better, even if he has limited resources. He is a die-hard Gunter, and his knowledge about Halliday borders on obsessive. But, Parzival is smart. So guess who figures out the first clue to finding the egg...
I really enjoyed this book! I loved Parzival's intelligence. He is both street smart and book smart, but not in a way that induces feeling of deus ex machina. The female characters are portrayed well, which also really impressed me considering it's a book about 1980's video games. I enjoyed that the book didn't employ a lot of typical plot twists: I often found myself thinking that a particular twist was certain to be on the horizon, but instead something else would happen to take me by surprise, and I found that really refreshing. The characters are pretty awesome, and I love that there's some depth to them, especially considering we only really see them in the Oasis.
Let's talk about the movie for a minute. The book is ALWAYS better than the movie. It's just a fact of life. That said, if I had never read the book, the movie would have been pretty great! The changes they made from the book are mostly acceptable, though I'm always disappointed with how much content they remove just so they can throw in more pointless (but cool looking) action sequences. I loved how they portrayed Halliday's character, and I thought they did a great job picking his actor. He's actually even better than I'd imagined!
Overall, awesome book, and I'll definitely be reading it again!
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