Reality?

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline transported me into another world.  The setting is a bleak future in which the majority of the population prefers spending time in the virtual reality world named Oasis.  This video game is free to users and is wildly popular, even giving its users the opportunity to shop, dress their avatars, socialize with other players in personally designed chat rooms, AND go to school!  Players can either acquire special powers or accessories through experience points.  They can teleport to locations within the Oasis universe.

There is SO much to this story.  The central plot deals with the main character, Wade, who lives in a towering trailer home with an aunt and other random family members.  He uses the Oasis to escape his miserable life.  When one of the Oasis’s founders dies, he leaves behind a massive treasure hunt to discover his multi-billion dollar fortune by following clues in his game.  Wade and a couple of his on-line friends are eager to win, but less savory characters are also after the prize.  These people will stop at nothing, including murder and cheating, to get the money.  Enmeshed with this is an unbelievable amount of 80s throwback references, including music, movies and TONS of video games.

Cline’s attention to detail in representing this world was amazing