Friday, August 19, 2011

Book Beginning & Friday 56: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Happy Friday everybody!!
Book Beginnings

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages 
Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. 
If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

The Friday 56
Rules:
  • Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
  • Turn to page 56.
  • Find the fifth sentence.
  • Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of Freda's Voice
  • Post a link along with your post back to Freda's Voice
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


I recently received a copy of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This one is getting a lot of publicity because the movie rights have already been sold. It looks like a science fiction dystopia for adults (though so far I see no reason why young adults can't read it.)


Here is the product description:
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. 

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.   

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.


Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.  

A world at stake.


A quest for the ultimate prize.


Are you ready?
Beginning:
Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest.
Friday 56:
Halliday bought and restored one of the original DeLoreans used in the Back to the Future films, continued to spend nearly all of his time welded to a computer keyboard, and used his newfound wealth to amass what would eventually become the world's largest private collection of classic video-games, Star Wars action figures, vintage lunch boxes and comic books.
Even though the 80s were not my decade (given that I am some older) and that I have never played a role playing game on or off the computer, I am finding this book strangely compelling with a very interesting main character.

8 comments:

  1. It's mainly the 80s? My kind of book then. It sounds intriguing.

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  2. Sounds like a geek who has too much idle time to waste.... but that probably makes for good reading. Thanks for participating!

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  3. This one sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing.

    Here's MY FRIDAY MEMES POST

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  4. Oh one of those moments in time then. It's always interesting to remember where you were at a significant moment in history!

    http://thebookgatherer.blogspot.com/2011/08/book-beginningson-friday_19.html

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  5. Good beginning and 56! My two sons would love this book...if they would take the time to read it. :(
    Here's Mine

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  6. I just got my copy of this book a week or two ago, I can't wait to read it especially after reading your 56!

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  7. Must have been some contest if everyone "remembers where they were and what they were doing" when they heard about it. That's the sort of statement usually saved for BIG events (JFK assassination, 9/11, etc.).

    Here's my Friday Memes: http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2011/08/friday-memes_19.html

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