Future Shock?

Since this blog is called Book Diplomacy, I figured I better do something on a book. I’d rarely put a work of fiction on a blog about politics and history and such, but this book just grabbed me with its’ depiction of a reality that could be wrapped up in virtual reality that I just had to tell everyone about it:

Video Games and Everything in Between

If your going to make a debut, make a debut! Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is at once an engrossing futuristic novel about a completely virtual world and a biting social commentary for the modern world on the evils of war, energy dependence, and human isolation in a virtual world of books, music, and television. The year 2044 and the world is an increasingly desolate and depressing place as humanity has chewed up the Earth’s natural resources in a series of humanity depleting wars. Populations are exploding creating horrendous overcrowding leading people to live in overcrowded trailers that are stacked sky high.

NEVER FEAR! Because this new world has the OASIS, this amazing online utopia featuring the entire combined collection of human knowledge from history, books, to movies and video games. Many things can be done online so that one never has to leave the virtual world. James Halladay, the co-founder of the OASIS System has died and has placed his vast $240 Billion Dollar fortune and control of the game, all for the finding by groups of puzzle hungry gamers. Enter the main character of Wade Watts and thousands of other gamers who digest every ounce of Watts trivia.

Altruistic gamers aren’t the only ones after the prize money. A detestable corporation known informally in the game world as the Sixes wants the prize so they can turn OASIS into a for pay operation and will do anything to get the prize. The competition is centered on the 1980’s as that was the decade when Halladay was a teenager and virtually every 1980’s pop culture reference is present throughout the book. Shockingly in this highly competitive dog eat dog atmosphere, love blooms between Wade and Art3mis until it gets into the way of competition. Can the gamers get to the prize before the evil multinational corporation only time will tell. Really has everything for the geek, but has serious undertones about corporate greed and human companionship, couldn’t put the sucker down.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3D37IO80SSIDM/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm