[R] Ready Player One, by: Ernest Cline

Ready Player One
by: Ernest Cline

★★★☆☆

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 ten thousand 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 twentieth 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.

my thoughts:

Woah! I really don't know how to begin my review. So many thoughts about the book that... I guess I will begin with the beginning, right?

Short Summary:
Our main character is a 18 to 19 years old guy called Wade Watts. His life has not being too peachy to say it like that. Her dad died when he was very little and his mom was not a good example, then she died and he was dragged to live with his aunt (who doesn't want him, only wants the benefits of live with him). While living with his mom and then with his aunt, he discorvers that life is not how people had told him. The human race is basically in his last days. The plannet is in chaos and the only thing to forget all that is logging in on OASIS.

This thing (OASIS) is like a huge videogame combinated with all the social networks. There you must created an avatar (looking just like you or you can make it look like another person), then you can do anything you want: play games, meet new people, even go to school. Now, the creator of this system is James Halliday and when he dies, there is no one to inherit all the money and company, so he makes a "game".

The game, called the "Egg Hunt", is basically that... hunting an egg. An special egg. First, they must find three keys, resolve some riddles and the person who wins will inherit every single money and all the rights of the company and the game. Now, the whole world is in caos trying to search this egg, but first they must resolve the first riddle and guess what? Our lovely friend Wade resolve it!
But that's not all, he must resolve the following two "levels" and that will not be easy. Bad people is following him, they even want to kill him, so he doesn't win the prize. Wade (aka Parzival -his avatar name-) alongside with his friends begins the search of the egg. Could they do it? or He will be killed before reaching the prize?

Characters -may find some spoilers here, so skip this part- :

• Wade Owen Watts (aka Parzival) - our main character. I already talk a little about him in the summary, so there is nothing much to say. He is a full time OASIS geek and a gunter (this is how the egg hunters are called). He, like any other gunter, becomes obsessed with finding this huge prize. He falls in love in Art3mis, which difficult his search. He is a good character. He is our POV, but he loves to rambling to much and I quite hated that. His character represents people who lives in a world that it doesn't exist and they prefered being there rather than in real life.
• Samantha Evelyn Cook (aka Art3mis) - you could say that she is another main character, but you can say the otherwise too. My book have 608 pages and of those her name appeared like in 350 pages of it, mostly mentioned by Wade. She is another fellow OASIS geek and you can say that at the end she doesn't want to return to it. She falls in love with Wade, but never say it. I can say it, because of many things she do and say. Her appearance is normal, except for a purple birthmark in her face, which I tend to say that she represents the people who is cast away because these things.
• Helen Harris (aka Aech) - this was one of those surprises that you cannot expect. Aech was a african american GIRL. The word girl have the most impact, because her avatar is a boy. It's a pretty long story of why she is a he in OASIS and all falls that her mother make her do it like that and then throw her away because she was gay. She represents the racism, sexism and homophia that the world have against black people, women and gay people.
• Akihide Karatsu (aka Shoto) & Toshiro Yoshiaki (aka Daito) - these two are our Japanesse friends, they are considered brothers... Until Daito die and Shoto tells the true to Wade. They were not brothers by blood and they not even knew each other in real life, but their friendship was very important to them, so they became brothers in OASIS game. For me, they represent those people that love each other like brothers when they are not. After Daito's death, Shoto makes a commitment of make his killers pay, aka revenge, but he too commits in help Wade find the egg.
• IOI workers (aka Sixers) - they are basically the bad guys and his number one is Sorrento. They are trying to make everything in his hands to find the egg and make OASIS a "better" world... not. They want to "destroy" it, by making people pay to logg in and other things that are not good for everyone. They are so into that.... that they preferred kill someone than use their brains for themselves. They represent the cruel world, that no matter what there is always bad people wanting what you have.

My Sincere Opinion of the Book:
I'm not against the book, but I can swear to you that I will never in my entire life read it again, not recommend it. You read it if you want, but I will not recommend it, ever. I was really struggling a lot with it. I was so near to give up the book and walk away from it. But I really wanted to know about how all was to end, so... yes, I read it all.

The book is good, I cannot say other thing. It haves a huge critic to videogames and all that stuff that make you go away from reality. If the book could talk, it could say something like this: "Everything in excess is bad". Its a good ending, not my favorite, but good. You could say that Wade and Samantha live happy every after (rich and all).

If you read all this, receive a hug from me. *hugs you*