19. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Audio read by Wil Wheaton

13 unabridged cds (15.5 hrs)

2011 Random House

374 pgs.

YA/Adult Fantasy

Finished 3/5/2015

Goodreads rating: 4.31

My rating:  3.5

TPPL

Setting: Oklahoma City & Columbus, but most of it was inside a virtual world

My comments:  This was certainly not my "usual" type of book.  It's all about 1980 video games being played in the 2040's, when the physical earth is in tatters and everyone lives pretty much in the virtual world of OASIS, with their personal avatar trying to find a virtual "egg" that a crazy now-dead billionaire programmer left as the prize at the end of an all-consuming quest.  Phew.  That sentence is too long, but it says it all!  Of the 13 unabridged cds, there are probably four or five complete cds worth of 1980s game, music, movie, and computer talk.  None of this really interested me, but the exceptional reading voice of Wil Wheaton kept me on track and I greatly enjoyed the story itself.  I compare it to The Circle in that it made me think of a future world where technology consumes us and changes the meaning of humanity completely.

Goodreads book summary:  In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. 
   But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.