Ready Player One

Synopsis

In the 2040s, the world suffers from an energy crisis due to depleted fossil fuels, pollution, global warming, and overpopulation, leading to widespread poverty and economic stagnation. People escape into the OASIS, a virtual universe created by James Donovan Halliday, originally an MMORPG that evolved into a ubiquitous virtual world with its own stable currency. The OASIS is divided into 27 sectors with various worlds and zones. To win, a user must find three hidden keys and unlock three gates.

This announcement sparks intense competition among Gunters (egg hunters) and a well-funded effort by the conglomerate Innovative Online Industries (IOI) to seize control and monetize the OASIS. Five years after Halliday's death, no keys have been found. The prologue states that on February 11, 2045, an avatar's name appears at the top of the Scoreboard after the Copper Key is found by an eighteen-year-old living in a trailer park in Oklahoma City, who is the narrator. The book is told from the future, claiming that many retellings have gotten the story wrong.

Characters

Wade Owen Watts, known by his OASIS avatar Parzival, is the viewpoint character. An orphan living with his Aunt Alice in the poverty-stricken stacks of Oklahoma City, he named his avatar after the Arthurian knight of the Holy Grail. James Donovan Halliday, also known as Anorak the All Knowing, created the OASIS; his avatar resembles a tall wizard in black robes. Aech (pronounced like the letter H), whose real name is Helen Harris, is Wade's best friend and fellow gunter.

Although Aech's avatar is an athletic white heterosexual male, Helen is a heavyset African-American lesbian from Atlanta. Samantha Evelyn Cook, known as Art3mis, is a famous female gunter and blogger who chose her avatar's name from the Greek goddess of the hunt; her avatar is stocky with short raven hair. Ogden 'Og' Morrow, also called The Great and Powerful Og, co-created the OASIS with Halliday. His appearance is described as a cross between Albert Einstein and Santa Claus, and his relationship with Halliday was inspired by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Reception

Ready Player One was a New York Times bestseller and received praise from outlets including Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, The A.V. Club, CNN.com, io9, and Boing Boing. USA Today wrote that the novel 'undoubtedly qualifies Cline as the hottest geek on the planet right now,' while NPR called it 'ridiculously fun and large-hearted.' Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted the book 'gets off to a witty start' but said gaming overwhelmed everything else. Rebecca Serle of HuffPost described it as 'the grown-up's Harry Potter.' The book has been translated into over 20 languages. Discussion renewed before the 2018 film adaptation, with substantially more negative reviews and social media backlash mocking Cline's writing style and extensive 80s pop culture references. Nick Shager of The Daily Beast offered a scathing review, calling it 'a terribly written piece of adolescent fantasy' and 'an unbearable celebration of nostalgic juvenilia,' criticizing its 'Peter Pan-ish infatuation with childishness.'

In other media

Ten months after the first edition's release, Cline revealed that the book contained an elaborately hidden Easter egg, forming the first part of a series of staged video gaming tests similar to the novel's plot, with the grand prize being a DeLorean. The hidden URL led to anoraksalmanac.com, the first stage featuring the 2011 Atari 2600 game The Stacks by Mike Mika and Kevin Wilson. The second stage featured the game Ultimate Collector: Garage Sale by Portalarium. The final stage, announced on August 1, 2012, required setting a world record on a classic arcade or Atari 2600 game; Craig Queen completed this on August 9, 2012, by setting a new world record in Joust, and was awarded the DeLorean on the TV series X-Play.

Reviews in a post-Gamergate cultural landscape were mostly negative, highlighting the embodiment of gatekeeping culture and controversies over possible objectification of Art3mis. Film rights were purchased by Warner Bros. on the same day Cline finalized his publishing deal. Steven Spielberg signed on to direct in March 2015, with production beginning in spring 2016. The film was released on March 29, 2018, with a score by Alan Silvestri after John Williams had scheduling conflicts.

Did You Know?

• A fan-fiction short story titled 'Lacero' by Andy Weir, published online in 2014, is considered canonical to the Ready Player One universe.
• The sequel, Ready Player Two, was number one on Amazon's fiction chart between November 29 and December 20, 2020.