Ready Player One, a marvelous science fiction written by Ernest Christy Cline, evinces Cline’s great enthusiasm for 1980s pop culture, including and especially the classic arcade games. In reverence of these things that accompanied him throughout his childhood, Cline bring them to life in Ready Player One.

The story is told from the perspective of Wade Watts and set in the year 2045 when the earth is suffering from the destruction of its natural environment. There is widespread famine. Wade is one of the victims. He lives with an aunt in a stack of gutter houses since both of his parents passed away. His introverted personality and the lack of charisma makes him the targets of bullies and isolates him. Only OASIS, the worldwide virtual reality videogame, gives him a sense of safety. Putting the haptic gloves and visor on, a player can immerse themselves into an extraordinary and beautiful universe, and this is precisely where Wade finds his escape, but also where he finds his destiny.

One day James Halliday, the creator of OASIS, decides to give all his property and the right of controlling OASIS to the person who can firstly find the hidden Halliday's Egg by solving puzzles to open the three secret gates in the game. Wade immediately becomes a hunter for the egg. 5 years passed, he unexpectedly becomes the NO.1 player who solves the mystery and opens the first gate. However, dangers follow his reputation. Wade and his online friends fight hard for the Egg, for their lives, and for every player of OASIS.

It took a long time for me to decide which theme predominated because every point mentioned was built into a powerful idea that I didn’t want to lose any one of these. I’m just here to introduce two of them that hit me most. First, the collision between reality and virtuality and their immense differences defines the book. Earth is an unpleasant place, but OASIS provides a refugee camp for people to live, causing people to forget the unpleasant nature of their reality; Wade is an awkward teenager with low self-esteem, even “girls were like some exotic alien species, both beautiful and terrifying (Page46)”. In contrast, bunches of acolytes followed legendary Parzival (Wade’s OASIS name) in the virtual world. It is OASIS that gives underdogs like Wade the hope of living and the chance of learning; so too does OASIS enable Wade to avoid unpleasant truths and hide from things he must ultimately face. The game opens up worlds to explore, but it also closes him off from his earthly world. Ernest Cline insightfully portrays the dilemma of choosing between the real and virtual world by exploring the interaction of the online world with its offline counterpart. The severe problem Wade encounters online can be solved in reality. However, Wade’s enemy in the game seeks to kill him in real life. The intricate but clear plotline drags the reader into the large empire built by Cline. Shall Wade turned back to reality in the final ending? Will OASIS help or not?

Another prevalent theme turned is the transition of the book’s hero—Wade Watts. As a poor orphan living in the harsh conditions, “Videogames are the only thing that makes life bearable (Page15).” Early in the book, Wade acknowledges that “Best of all, in the OASIS, no one could tell that I was fat, that I had acne, or that I wore the same shabby clothes every week… No one could even touch me. In here, I’m safe.” All his perceived weaknesses can be hidden by logging into this alternate universe. He experiences it as a way of surviving, but also a way of avoiding. As the hunting contest for the elusive eggs unfolds, Wade finds the pleasure of fulfilling his dream and achieve a personal triumph. When he chats with Art3mis(Wade’s secret crush), Wade reveals that if he wins, he will use the money to construct a spaceship and escape the world. However, when Wade discovers that the antagonists detonated where he lives and kills his friends, his dreams of wealth and notoriety faded, replaced by desire for justice. And as a matter of growth, his desire to justice isn’t merely for himself, but for his friends and those forgotten in this economically bifurcated system. He now wants to use the prize not for himself but to make the world a better place by helping underdogs.

In conclusion, the book is absurdly fun! I rarely discover an author who can let my adrenaline flowing in just two or three sentences. Teenagers can easily find resonance through the young character’s psychological descriptions, while adults will revel in the grand pictures of both the 1980s and 2045s. I learned to have the courage to never stop moving forward and trust there is unlimited potential within me. Every single person is the ready player one in their life. Just read it, you’ll find wisdom and life advice on every page.