Reading Response for: Ready Player One

The novel "Ready Player One" was as good as the acclaims on the back said it was.

The book is set in the year 2045, and the world has become an ugly place; we're out of oil, we've wrecked the climate, and famine, poverty and disease are widespread.

Meanwhile, humanity escapes this depressing reality with its own: the OASIS, a sprawling, sense-enveloping, virtual simulation, containing thousands upon thousands of cities, worlds and planets, and regarded by some as an alternative to life itself.

However, the reclusive creator of this simulation James Halliday, has died 5 years ago, leaving in his will a massive fortune, and no heir to his name. But, the catch is, he has devised a hunt for an "Easter egg", a hidden video game object, the prize.

The path this hunt for the egg takes is so elaborate, so intricate, and so complicated, that not even Halliday himself knew whether it could be completed. With only a short instructional video and the knowledge that Halliday was obsessed with 1980's pop culture to go on, the world becomes obsessed with finding the egg.

After 5 years of searching for just the start of this quest, most OASIS have shrugged it off as the antics of a crazy old man. Only a dedicated few still search for the egg, calling themselves "gunters" (a truncation of egg hunters).

Our protagonist, a 17-year old American named Wade Watts, is a low-level gunter with little money. After studying every 80's reference in Halliday's autobiography, Anorak's Almanac, he stumbles upon a dungeon on his school planet, and uncovers the start of the quest.

Soon, Wade finds himself caught in a race to find the egg, a race that takes on terrifying real-world consequences.

This book hugely appealed to me, sci-fi, of course, being my favourite genre. It's packed with 80's movie, book and video game references that being a central theme of the hunt, that you must understand the most obscure reference in this quest, otherwise, you could overlook and possibly miss something essential to finding the egg.

I think my favourite part of the novel is when Wade, having been the top "gunter" in the world for finding the start, has pulled away from real life, focusing solely on the hunt. At this point, another OASIS user, has taken his position as leading "gunter". The passage just describes his morning routine and what he has achieved in recent weeks, but it shows just how disenchanted Wade has become with his life outside the OASIS. He's painted over the windows of his apartment with black paint to stop him from focusing on the outside world, wearing nothing but a OASIS bodysuit to improve his sensory experience, and falls asleep in the custom rig he has had built to play in the simulation.

This passage mimics the lifestyle that some people maintain. These people, called  have become addicted to such games as World of Warcraft and "Second Life". Some have gone so far that they have died from malnutrition, thirst and sleep-deprivation. The book also references the "missing millions" in Japan, called hikikomori, literally meaning "pulling inwards, being confined" in Japanese, and translated to "withdrawal" on Google Translate.

On my final note, I would highly recommend this novel to people interested in video-gaming and science-fiction, and those who appreciate sarcasm, pop culture, and 80's movies (or movii, if you want to become a true grammar Nazi).