Ready Player One

By: Ernest Cline

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

“Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly

A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself.

Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club

“Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost

“An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN

“A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe

“Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR

“[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

©2011 Ernest Cline (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

2017, Laura Hillenbrand Outstanding Literary Award, Winner

“The science-fiction writer John Scalzi has aptly referred to Ready Player One as a ‘nerdgasm’ [and] there can be no better one-word description of this ardent fantasy artifact about fantasy culture. . . . But Mr. Cline is able to incorporate his favorite toys and games into a perfectly accessible narrative.” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)

“This non-gamer loved every page of Ready Player One.” (Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series)

phenomonal!

narration is at a good pace. I love the story. 10/10 would read again....in about 20 minutes.

Great book

I've listened to this twice now in the past couple months. Great story and narration. Would definitely recommend!

loved it

what a great mind this fellow has. good times were had by me and the characters

First Book on Audible

I decided to try audible out based on a few advertisements I had seen for it. My brother recommended this book to me a couple months back, so I thought "Why not kill two birds? Try audible AND read this book." Long story short, this novel hit home with the main theme of video gaming and a plethora of 80's references. FANTASTIC READ!

P.S. I will happily continue to use Audible

Fantastic story, amazing narration by Wil Wheaton!

Unique storyline, Narration was great and kept me wanting to hear more, definitely recommend it!

Good book, goes a little overboard at times

I had some trouble with suspension of disbelief here and there, like when the main character Wade, who has not yet completed High School, claims to have memorized *all* the music, movies, sitcoms, books, video games, interests and life story of another mans entire lifetime along with going to school, and finding a way to support himself as an orphaned boy. Still a good read though. Wil Wheaton is an excellent narrator who adds a lot of feeling to the story. Wade also has an inordinate amount of good luck without which the plot could have been a little more interesting.

On the positive side, Cline has good writing style. No eye-rollingly bad dialog, and even though you know what's going to happen, you still want to finish to find out how he got there. Also has some interesting plot twists which caught me off guard. I always like that in a story!

Not Flawless, but Good Culture-Referencing Fun

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Probably, depending on the friend. The book takes place in a game world that is utterly obsessed with 80s pop culture. Cline lays on the period references fast and thick from chapter one all the way until the end. While usually amusing, this does get tiresome if (like me) you don't share Cline's love for the decade. Most of the references to 80s pop culture went over my head, but the references to video game culture and nerddom in general found their desired mark. Cline's virtual reality world is superbly imagined and is a thoroughly engrossing setting for adventure. The Oasis is the ultimate dream game and hooked me instantly. This book is written expecting you to love the 80s and videogames. If you have an appreciation of at least one of those things then you will have an enjoyable experience. If you have an appreciation of neither, then you'll be missing the heart of the book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Parzival's best friend Aech (read: "H") was the most fun and had the least amount of angst (a characteristic sometimes over-present in Parzival and Art3mis). An honorable mention goes to Ogden Morrow for his awesome birthday party scene.

What does Wil Wheaton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The fact that Wil Wheaton is himself a piece of nerd and 80s trivia makes him the perfect narrator (in fact, he even has a tiny cameo in the book). I found his reading style to be very clear and easy to understand and I never had to rewind to catch a missed word or phrase. After a couple of hours the limitations of his inflection and expression became apparent, possibly coincident with Cline's similarly limited range in writing, but I still consider Wheaton a good choice for this book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened in 20-30 minute chunks during my commute, and frequently wanted to continue listening. The story moves at a good clip and maintains an infectious sense of urgency.

Any additional comments?

It's difficult to define Ready Player One. On one hand, it's not a particularly good book - relying heavily on targeted pop-culture references to prop up intermittently juvenile writing. On the other hand, it's a great book - imagining a creative and exciting world into which Cline spins a classic, thrilling adventure yarn. While I see Ready Player One's flaws, I still had a great with it.

Awesome story, narration!

Great story(I'm an 70's child) I heard about this book while watching 'Atari: Game Over'... Pop culture fun- Will Weaton's narration was EXCELLENT! Highly recommend! Will not disappoint-

Superb

Great story, great narration. This book kept me locked into it the entire time! Anyone that grew up in the 80's would have an immediate connection to this book.

Really glad I stumbled into this one! Fantastic!

This was the best "page turner" for me since last summer's "The Passage." I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has some commonalities with "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson in terms of it's virtual world settings, but it is far more engrossing than that novel. More than a futuristic virtual world work of science fiction, it is simply a nostalgic trip. For those of us who remember the 80s, this was solidly a blast from the past. Having been into many of the games and hobbies in my youth. I even had a friend much like virtual character of H. The only thing that kept me from giving it five stars was Cline's anti-capitalist perspective that crept in many place (e.g., it's description of the major telecom corporation in the novel) but that was not enough to seriously dampen my enjoyment of this book. A final note - while Scott Brick remains my all-time favorite narrator, Wil Wheaton is the perfect choice for this book and does a marvelous job reading.