Ready Player One Kindle Edition

My parents were 80s fans, so as a direct result had many of the references throughout the book within reach while I was growing up. This caused the book to be quite fabulous as I could add my own detail and knowledge of many references as they were mentioned.

The overall story is pretty good (I don't really have a book to compare it against), and there were times where something happened that I wasn't expecting - there are also times where it can be quite predictable. Some more modern readers who aren't as enthused about 80s references and older games may find this book to be less interesting. If you don't like puzzles, you will miss out on a lot of what the book has to offer; half the fun is piecing together the Scavenger Hunt alongside Wade.

As a result I would highly recommend this book to anyone willing to read sci-fi and especially someone who would understand the plethora of geeky references alongside the popular 80s music and movies, but I would maybe hold off if someone were less enthused about the 80s and not so much into sci-fi.

Ready Player One is a novel for anyone who loves obscure pop culture references, your childhood is inside these pages. Rush 2112, Atari 2600, Tolkien, Steven King, Ray Bradbury, Orson Scott Card, Shakespeare, Clockwork Orange, John Hughes films, Kaiju, and anything else 80s entertainment is liable to jump from your memory onto the stark black text. Young readers also can familirize themselves with the homages, which are often explained to great detail, even mmos and Quake make an apperance for videogame history newcomers. Quick read. Part adventure, love story, social and humanitarian commentary on society and how technology effects our everyday lives.

To make the references more fresh. If you arent familiar already, enjoy games and films such as:
*Not really spoilers because everyone should be familar with such gems*

-Obligatory Spoiler Alert-

Black Tiger
Dungeons of Daggorath
Galaga
Joust
Pac-Man
Tempest
Zork
Adventure
Airplane!
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Back To The Future
The Beastmaster
Better Off Dead (film)
Blade Runner
Big Trouble In Little China
Brazil
The Breakfast Club
A Clockwork Orange
Conan the Barbarian
The Dark Crystal
Excalibur
Explorers
Evil Dead trilogy
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Fight Club
Footloose
Ghostbusters
Goonies
Hawk the Slayer
Highlander (film) and Highlander II: The Quickening
Heathers'
The Iron Giant (robot reward selection)
The Killer
Ladyhawke
Legend
The Last Starfighter
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Mad Max (1-3)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
National Lampoon's European Vacation
Real Genius
Revenge of the Nerds
Risky Business
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Say Anything
Short Circuit
Silence of the Lambs
Sixteen Candles
Sneakers
Star Trek
Star Wars, original and prequel trilogies, and made-for-TV Ewok adventures
The Terminator
Tron
The Twilight Zone
WarGames
Weird Science
The Matrix (1-3)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek (the rest.)
2010

"2112" by Rush
"II. The Temples of Syrinx" by Rush
"III. Discovery" by Rush
"Alladdin Sane" by David Bowie
"Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss (2010 soundtrack)
"Atomic" by Blondie
American rock band Devo
English rock band Pink Floyd
"A Million Miles Away" by the Plimsouls
"Beds Are Burning" by Midnight Oil
"Change" by John Waite (Vision Quest soundtrack)
Austrian rapper Falco (name of Parzival's planet stronghold)
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC
"Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo
Ladyhawke soundtrack
"Subdivisions" by Rush
"Three Is a Magic Number" by Bob Dorough (Schoolhouse Rock!)
Conan the Barbarian OST by Basil Poledouris
Star Wars OST by John Williams
"Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia
"Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats
"Don't Let's Start" by They Might Be Giants
"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!
"Like to Get to Know You Well" by Howard Jones
"James Brown is Dead" by L.A. Style
"Blue Monday ('88 Remix)" by New Order
"Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol
"Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper
"(Everywhere I Go) Kids Wanna Rock" by Bryan Adams
"Union of the Snake" by Duran Duran
"Bad Boys" by Duran Duran
"In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel
"Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard
"The Wild Boys" by Duran Duran
"In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel
American metal band Dokken

Anime and tokusatsu reference

Cowboy Bebop
Brave Raideen
Gundam
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Supaidāman
Ultraman
Voltron
Starblazers
G-Force
Giant Robo
Gamera
Godzilla
Kikaider
Mazinger Z
Kiryu (Millennium Mechagodzilla)
The Space Giants (Maguma Taishi)
Robotech
Speed Racer
Spectreman

TV Show references

Family Ties
Silver Spoons
Spaced
Max Headroom
Monty Python
Firefly
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Whiz Kids
The Muppet Show
Square Pegs
Simon & Simon
ElectraWoman and DynaGirl
Isis
Wonder Woman
Schoolhouse Rock!
Knight Rider
The Simpsons
Addams Family
The Greatest American Hero
Airwolf
The A-Team
Misfits of Science
Land of the Lost
He-Man
G.I.Joe
Thundarr the Barbarian
H.R. Pufnstuf
Cosmos
Captain Kangaroo
Riptide
Misfits of Science

Literature references

Douglas Adams
Kurt Vonnegut
Neal Stephenson
Richard K. Morgan
Stephen King
Orson Scott Card
Terry Pratchett
Terry Brooks
Alfred Bester
Ray Bradbury
Joe Haldeman
Robert A. Heinlein
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jack Vance
William Gibson
Neil Gaiman
Michael Moorcock
John Scalzi
Roger Zelazny
Philip K. Dick

Now you are prepared..
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I bought this book for someone else so I don't know anything about the condition of the book itself but as far as the story goes this book is one of my all time favorite books (got it on audio book) and I would recommend it to anyone that is into "old time" games/systems and computers (VR) and si-fi. Thank you very much

Try as I might, I cannot be objective about a story so intimately close with my own upbringing. Ready Player One is the much-praised videogame/quest/adventure puzzle in novel form from Ernest Cline. When a multi-billionaire dies and leaves his fortune to the player of his immersive online worldgame who can find the hidden easter egg treasure, thousands worldwide sign up to try to find the prize.

Along the way, alliances are formed, enemies are declared, loopholes are discovered, and progress is made. This book was an absolute geek treasure trove in and of itself, with hundreds of reference pulled directly from my own childhood. If you grew up with Basic D&D, the Atari 2600 and Infocom games, you will absolutely LOVE this book. It's bursting at the seams with pop-culture reference that any child of the 80s will appreciate.

The book is cleverly written, with great plot twists and clever puzzles. I can say that I got most of the references, but certainly not all. Either way, I really did enjoy every second of this book.

However, there's so much "insider" detail, it might be overwhelming to the casual reader. There is a definitive audience for this book, and I'm not sure how much people outside of that demographic will like it. If you spend hours on your Atari 2600 playing Adventure, Asteroids and the Pac-Man that didn't rotate, or wiled away hour after hour playing the Basic D&D Modules of the early 1980s, or spend countless days in Video Game Arcades at your local bowling alley or Mini-golf complex, playing Galaga, Space Ace and Tron, this book is for you and you will absolutely love it. Put your quarter on the top of the game to declare "next" and get. this. book.

Audiobook note: The audiobook was superbly read by Ubergeek Wil Wheaton, who does a fantastic job of playing out the chaos and geekthink.