Future Wastelands discussion

Our winning January read is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

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.

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I loved this book! Read it In a couple of days. My biggest complaint was that all of the gaming seemed to stop with the late 1980s. It seemed like the author could have put something a little further along the gaming timeline, either real or imagined. That being said, it perfectly matched my own memories of the gaming from those years. Which is, I suppose, what he was aiming for in the first place. Great read.

I was wondering if it would ever expand. I realize why they focus on the 1980s culture but it almost feels as if the book is stuck. However, it still is interesting.

I agree with you, Bob, that the author could have put more of the gaming timeline into the story. It would develop the timeline up to the OASIS and provide more depth to the gaming aspect of the book.

I'm about a hundred or so pages in and I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, given that the last computer game I played was Pong back in 1978.

I have read the book and listened to the audiobook (which is amazing by the way as it is read by Wil Wheaton) and I can't stop recommending it. It is a super fun read that provides readers who were born in the 70's and 80's a wonderful nostalgia that keeps you smiling throughout the book. I loved when the author would reference something that I had or had seen in my childhood and I would feel like I was in some special club and was reading about an inside joke that I had with the author. This is definitely a book that I will read again.