Ready Player One

By: Ernest Cline

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The book behind the major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

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

It's the year 2044 and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty and disease are widespread.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of 10,000 planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late 20th century. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.

Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.

If you loved Ready Player One and can't wait for more, check out Armada, Ernest Cline's latest geek masterpiece!

©2011 Ernest Cline (P)2012 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut." (Independent)

"Part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart." (CNN)

"Ernest Cline’s novel deserves to be a modern classic." (SciFiNow)

Love it!

If you are a geek, love retro 80s pop culture, or both, you'll love it too. Wil Wheaton's performance is just gravy.

Wow! Loved this

I was born in 1972 - at least half to 3/4 of the references, pop culture, computer games, coin ops, movies, home computers and songs are memories for me - this was a well researched well written compelling journey. A must read for anyone who remembers Atari computers, coin op video games, and 80's movies.

loved it

couldn't stop listening ( I also have the book ) and never will stop reading

One of the best

Will Weaton is a legend. Such flawless narration. Couldn't stop listening to this epic book.

One of my all time favourites!

This book brings me right back to my childhood. Being a geeky kid in the 80s resonates harmonically with this storyline. It captivates you immediately and brings a balanced dose of geeky references, action packed events, stories of friendships and even some first love. Ernest Cline is a master storyteller and combine this with Will Wheaton's truly amazing performance as a narrator and you've got what is probably one of my all-time favourite listens.

Recommended from The Martian - didn't disappoint

I don't think I would have chosen this book had it not been a recommendation from someone after I had read Andy Weir's 'The Martian'. While the setting is very different the heart of the story is similar with the main character struggling to solve problems.
Wil Wheaton gave a fantastic performance and while at the start I associated his voice as his own I quickly became to hear it as the characters'.

Game adventure of note

The story takes you on journey of self discovery, strained friendships and bravery through a epic game quest. The gamers underdogs against a corporate machine that will cheat and stack all cards in their favour for the ultimate prize.

A good read, the well researched 80s facts brought back some memories and the flow was well maintained. If you like retro gaiming and RPGs and your up for an adventure then this book is for you.

Absolutely Amazing 😊

Amazing story and brilliant narration, loved it a lot. Had an amazing experience with the audio book.

exceptionally amazing...loved it!

loved it till the end. very well narrated, good voice changing. amazing story.. kept me wanting more and more...

Loved the movie and wanted to know the real story

The original story did not disappoint.
I’ve seen the movie first and loved it as I was pretty much a NERD and could relate to most of the references in the movie.
But the original story in the book blowed me further away than the movie did.
I could understand the movie changed many parts of the story in order to make it more attractive to achieve high in box office thus I wanted to know what the original story was in the first place.
If you have any interest in pop culture, technology, board games, video games, virtual reality, and other related field, this book is a must read / listen. And read to you by one of the members of The Big Bang Theory - Wil Wheaton was good. Although it feels like Wil didn’t have much experience reading thus there were many parts where every characters voices were the same. No unique accent, change of tone, voice, etc.
Other than that, it was a blast learning the original story.