Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.
But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

This book is the ultimate nerd tome and I loved it! It takes the gaming aspect of a massive multiplayer online game/world  and couples it with social media run amok and a future world that's falling to pieces. It furthermore brings some solid 80's gaming and pop culture knowledge to the table and mixes it all up with a deadly treasure hunt for the power to rule it all. I'm not a huge gamer or anything, and born in 1988, it's not like I have a firm grip of that era either, but I knew enough through pop culture references and what I didn't know, this book taught me.

I loved the main character Wade and all his faults and flaws, I love the other characters, I love the general design/concept of the game, I love the absolute nerdiness, I love how thorough the back story is and how well put together the book is. It's funny, it's captivating and I couldn't put it down. It's all made even better in the audio book which is narrated by Wil Freaking Wheaton! (you may remember him from his reoccurring role as himself in the Big Bang Theory). I literally listened to this book for hours on end instead of doing anything else, because I just couldn't stop myself.

In short: this is really good. If you even have the slightest inner nerd or interest in anything from the 80's you should read this - or better yet, listen to it.

P.S. They're making a movie out of it and Steven Spielberg has signed on to direct!

READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline Narrated by Wil Wheaton ISBN13: 9781448149582 Audiobook, approx. 15 hours 41 minutes / Published in 2011

Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2015