After the death of creator James Halliday, OASIS isn't just a virtual utopia, it's also a hardcore game where the hidden Easter Egg means not only controlling stock of Gregarious Simulation Systems (Halliday's company) but also $240,000,000,000. Everyone makes an attempt at winning, but after five years no one has made any headway on the cryptic clue... Until seventeen year old, poor, Halliday-obsessed, anti-social Wade discovers the first key to winning it all.
Let the games begin.
I'm going to flat out say that my little summary of this book is quite trite. There is much more to this book than what I've described. Not necessarily depth, but detail. Lots and lots of detail. Ernest Cline is obviously writing from a huge nerd's perspective.* Thank God. The ridiculous amount of information in this book is absolutely perfect. I cannot tell you how sad it would have been if someone else would have written this book, unless it was written by a bigger nerd than Mr. Cline and I'm not sure if there is one.
*Sidenote: I would just like to mention that I mean nerd in the most complimentary terms. I consider myself one, and would probably ask Ernest Cline to marry me if he weren't already married with children.
This book while Wade's story seems like a love story written for the 80s - War Games, Voltron, Four Square, Ms. Pac-Man - They're all represented and the games, movies, television shows, just get more obscure and wonderful from then on. It made me laugh when Wade gets teased by his friend Aech for his love of Legend and Ladyhawke. Awesome. It's not all about 80s pop culture references, it gives a completely reasonable explanation of computer software and gaming gear even for a person who never owned a gaming console until 2007 like me.
