Ana Paula Binder Paula Binder itibaren Johnsburg, NY 12843, USA
It had a few twists and the main character is bold and sassy.
I have to admit to being a bit of a closet nerd. I know that makes me sound just a little bit like a regular nerd, but hear me out. A part of me wishes to have been welcomed with open arms into some hardcore Dungeons & Dragons group where I could roll those multifaceted dice to my heart's content as my low level wizard became an all-powerful sorcerer. Alas, I spent my high school years singing and dancing in community theater instead, only occasionally picking up a Nintendo joystick to battle Gannon and save Princess Zelda. With that little secret still alive and kicking inside me, I devoured Ernest Cline's novel with relish. The novel opens in the 40s--the 2040s that is. America has lost its ability to sustain the insatiable appetites of its population and the urban centers have become the only habitable landscape as the rest of the country has fallen into lawlessness. Life is barely worth living, especially for Wade, a teenage orphan living outside of Oklahoma City near the top of a towering stack of trailers (such "stacks" have surfaced on the outskirts of all major cities and serve as the new projects). He is like most people of the world: the only enjoyment comes from plugging into a virtual world called the OASIS. Here Wade becomes Parzival. Imagine the virtual world of The Matrix combined with virtual fantasy world of Second Life and you'll be close to the virtual reality of the OASIS. In the OASIS though, avatar's travel the galaxy, adventuring around planets devoted to specific themes that run the gambit from Dungeons & Dragons to military warfare to John Hughes' flicks. In the OASIS, Wade attends school, lives out various adventures (although on a limited basis due to his real and virtual poverty), and searches for Halliday's Egg. Halliday is the creator of the OASIS; born in the mid-1970s, he has a penchant for all things 80s. He developed the OASIS after growing up on the Atari 2600 and conquering each subsequent gaming system that replaced it. Upon his death a few years before the novel's opening, he released a video announcing that he had hidden three keys and three gates within his virtual world that lead to his "Easter Egg." Whoever finds the egg would inherit his insanely wealthy estate. Early on, Wade inadvertently becomes the first to discover the first key, and his avatar immediately becomes a worldwide celebrity as his name becomes the first to appear on Halliday's score board in the years since his death. Adventure begins as the nerds struggle to dominate the corporate bullies to reach Halliday's egg. If this all sounds hokey, it is, but the beauty of Cline's novel is that it doesn't feel this way when you're reading it. He never delves too deeply into the miscellaneous D&D-style simulations even though the majority of the book takes place within the OASIS. With Halliday's love affair with the 1980s at the heart of the search for his egg, the book is as much a love letter to the pop culture of that decade as it is role playing fantasy excitement. (An intricate knowledge of such gems as Family Ties and Ladyhawke is helpful to truly enjoy the book, but not necessary.) If you steer clear of this book because of its sci-fi/fantasy genre, you'll be doing yourself a big disservice. It's an utterly entertaining read from start to finish!