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 … in the not-so-distant future the world has turned into a very bleak place, but luckily there is OASIS, a virtual reality world that is a vast online utopia. People can plug into OASIS to play, go to school, earn money, and even meet other people (or at least they can meet their avatars), and for protagonist Wade Watts it certainly beats passing the time in his grim, poverty-stricken real life. Along with millions of other world-wide citizens, Wade dreams of finding three keys left behind by James Halliday, the now-deceased creator of OASIS and the richest man to have ever lived. The keys are rumored to be hidden inside OASIS, and whoever finds them will inherit Halliday’s fortune. But Halliday has not made it easy. And there are real dangers in this virtual world.

After hearing Jick talk about it on a Kingdom of Loathing podcast last year, I picked up a copy of  “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline. I have to admit, this book had me hooked after referring to “Heathers,” Oingo Boingo, the Atari 2600, and 800XL, Galaga, and “Family Ties” in just the first few pages.

The beginning gave me a distinct “Daemon” vibe: when an eccentric software developer and creator of the OASIS (think the Matrix), James Halliday, died he left behind a massive virtual scavenger hunt inside the massive online system. The first person to find all three keys, pass the three gates, and find Halliday’s easter egg becomes the sole heir to his entire estate and owner of the OASIS (the similarity to “Daemon” ends there since Halliday isn’t trying to kill people and take over the world from beyond the grave).

Our protagonist, Wade Watts, is a high school senior and an expert in all things Halliday. He’s just one of millions of gunters (or “egg hunters” trying to find Halliday’s egg. But it’s been five years since Halliday’s death and no one has even found the first key yet. That is, until Wade (known as Parzival in the OASIS), makes a breakthrough discovery and the hunt is suddenly on. Wade quickly learns that the search for Halliday’s egg is serious business in some circles, even worth killing for. Can Parzival and his fellow gunters find the egg and keep the OASIS free from the hands of the corporate behemoths who want sole financial control?

“Ready Player One” takes place in 2044, but it’s chock full of 80s pop-culture (check the wiki page for just a few!). “Whiz Kids,” Cory Doctorow, Will Wheaton (who reads the audiobook version), “WarGames,” “Blade Runner,” and Monty Python all make appearances. It was those references that really appealed to my nostalgic side, having been a geek in the 80s (the golden age of dungeons and dragons, video games, music, movies, and TV) when being a geek wasn’t cool. Without getting into spoilers there was a whole interactive fiction section (I took great pride in figuring out the “dwelling long neglected” puzzle chapters before Wade did ;-)), and I had actually listened to Rush’s 2112 the day before it came up in the book. On top of all of that, I learned some things: I had no idea the last level of Pac-Man was a corrupted split-screen (I never got that far), or that the very first easter egg was in Adventure on the Atari 2600.

I also couldn’t help but wonder if Cline had modeled James Halliday on Steve Jobs with the way he is portrayed in the story (an intensely private person who built something that changed the world, and died, tragically, of cancer). Halliday’s business partner, Ogden Morrow, even reminded me of Woz, and the evil empire of Innovative Online Industries could have been Microsoft.

Overall, “Ready Player One” was an immensely enjoyable ready for me. If you were a nerd in the 80s, you really should read it.