Summary (with spoilers):
It's the 2040s, and the world has entered into a dystopian era after running out of fossil fuel. Most people spend their time in OASIS, a huge virtual reality simulator that has replaced the Internet. The OASIS was created by an extraordinary programmer named Halliday. Upon his death, Halliday issues a challenge to the world. The first person to find his 3 keys and 3 gates, solving intricate puzzles along the way involving 1980s culture (the era when Halliday grew up), will inherit Halliday's massive fortune. This contest gives rise to the "gunters," people who have devoted themselves to finding Halliday's "Easter egg" within the worlds of OASIS.
Enter Wade (avatar name Parzival), a poor orphan living with his degenerate aunt in "The Stacks," although he spends most of his time in an abandoned van. He's a gunter obsessed with figuring out the puzzle, with a specialty in old arcade games. He doesn't have the money to teleport around the OASIS, but he is able to access the planet Ludus, where he goes to school. His only friend, Aech, is also a gunter.
While reading Halliday's 80s culture lovefest journal, Wade notices that some letters are marked, and that putting the marked letters together spells out a clue about the first key, mentioning a tomb of horrors and learning. He realizes that the tomb of horrors refers to an old D&D quest module, while the reference to learning means that the tomb recreation could be on the Ludus school planet. After scanning the Ludus map, he finds a hill that matches the illustrations in the Tomb of Horrors module.
He uses a school voucher (intended to let him go to away games) to transport to the correct area of Ludus. He makes his way through the tomb, avoiding the traps, until he gets to the throne room. The arch-lich, which isn't supposed to show up until later, is sitting on the dias, and challenges Wade to a Joust tournament. Wade loses the first game, but after asking to switch sides, he's barely able to win the next two games. Wade receives the Copper Key. He's the first person to find the key, even though the contest has been going for 5 years!
As he turns to leave, he runs into another avatar, Art3mis. Wade's been reading her gunter blog for years, and has a crush on Art3mis, although he's never met her. Although suspicious of each other, they like each other right away and exchange contact information. However, Wade lies to her about getting the Copper Key. She checks the scoreboard, and see's that Parzival's name is there. He admits winning at Joust, and advises her to switch sides with the arch-lich.
The Copper Key has a clue written on it, which Wade instantly deciphers. Wade heads for the planet Middletown, a recreation of Halliday's hometown, knowing that he must beat a specific video game to find the gate. Upon beating the game, a gate is revealed. Wade inserts the key and enters into star-studded space, landing in a recreation of the movie WarGames as Matthew Broderick's character David Lightman.
Art3mis soon clears the First Gate as well, followed a day later by Aech and two guys from Japan, Daito and Shoto. I-rok, an annoying friend of Aech's, reveals that both Aech and Wade are students on Ludus, because the two refuse to show him where the Copper Key is hidden.
As Parzival becomes famous, Wade gets all sorts of endorsement offers. He also gets an email from the IOI corporation, home of the "Sixers." This corporation wants to win the contest so that they can take over the OASIS and start charging an entry fee.
Wade agrees to meet with a high ranking IOI employee, who offers him a job and money to give them a walk-through of the First Gate. When Wade refuses, IOI reveals that they know his real identity, and that if he doesn't help them, they'll blow up his home in The Stacks, where they believe he currently is. Wade realizes that either they are bluffing, or that if they intend to kill him, they'll do it whether he helps them or not. He decides not to help them and leaves the virtual chat. Minutes later, an explosion destroys his home. (Luckily, he's in his hide-out in the van.)
Shaken, Wade and Aech call all of the others who have managed to gain a place on the scoreboard (a group known as the High Five.) Despite the danger, they decide to remain solo gunters. The Sixers converge on Ludus and put a force field around the entrance to the Copper Key.
With his endorsement money, Wade moves to Columbus, changes his identity, and gets his own apartment. He develops a relationship with Art3mis (although they've never met in person), but when he declares his love for her, she tells him they shouldn't see each other until the contest is over. She then becomes the first to find the Jade Key.
The Sixers have acquired a powerful artifact that allows them to locate any avatar once per day. When Art3mis finds the Jade Key, they use the power to discover she is on Sector 7. When swarms of Sixers flock to the sector, everyone else knows the Jade Key is there too.
Aech sends Wade a clue about the location of the Jade Key. It's hidden in a world based on the text-based game Zork. Once Wade collects all of the trophies, he must blow a whistle found in a Captain Crunch cereal box (like people used to do to make free long-distance phone calls.) The Jade Key is encased in foil, with a riddle about passing the test to continue the quest. Wade has to flee the planet quickly as the Sixers descend.
During the battle at the Zork planet, Daito is killed in real life. Shoto visits Wade in the OASIS and gives him a powerful artifact that Daito, Shoto, and Wade had uncovered during a quest they did earlier. While Wade tries to discover the clue to the Jade Gate, the Sixers pass the Jade Gate and obtain the Crystal Key.
Wade realizes the clue is a reference to Bladerunner. As he says "the unicorn," the paper folds itself into a unicorn. He finds a replica of the tower in Bladerunner and is transported to the second gate, a bowling alley from Halliday's youth. He plays a first person version of Black Tiger and is rewarded with his choice of a large robot and the clue to the Crystal Key. The clue, a symbol on a Rush album, leads him to a planet based on the album 2112. Using the song lyrics as a guide, he finds a guitar. While still in that room, he plays the first bit of "Discover," and another clue is revealed. Wade realizes that the Sixers must not have received this addition clue. He plays the guitar in the main room, and is rewarded with the Crystal Key.
The Crystal Key contains an "A," just like the one on Halliday's character Anorack. Wade realizes that he must go to Anorack's castle, which no one but Halliday has ever been able to enter. Unfortunately, right after Wade gains the key, the Sixers put a barrier around the castle so that no one can enter.
Wade emails the locations of the gates and keys to Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto. He purposefully goes into debt under his fake identity, so that he'll be arrested by IOI, which has a system of making people who can't pay their debts become indentured servants.
Aech sends Wade a clue about the location of the Jade Key. It's hidden in a world based on the text-based game Zork. Once Wade collects all of the trophies, he must blow a whistle found in a Captain Crunch cereal box (like people used to do to make free long-distance phone calls.) The Jade Key is encased in foil, with a riddle about passing the test to continue the quest. Wade has to flee the planet quickly as the Sixers descend.
During the battle at the Zork planet, Daito is killed in real life. Shoto visits Wade in the OASIS and gives him a powerful artifact that Daito, Shoto, and Wade had uncovered during a quest they did earlier. While Wade tries to discover the clue to the Jade Gate, the Sixers pass the Jade Gate and obtain the Crystal Key.
Wade realizes the clue is a reference to Bladerunner. As he says "the unicorn," the paper folds itself into a unicorn. He finds a replica of the tower in Bladerunner and is transported to the second gate, a bowling alley from Halliday's youth. He plays a first person version of Black Tiger and is rewarded with his choice of a large robot and the clue to the Crystal Key. The clue, a symbol on a Rush album, leads him to a planet based on the album 2112. Using the song lyrics as a guide, he finds a guitar. While still in that room, he plays the first bit of "Discover," and another clue is revealed. Wade realizes that the Sixers must not have received this addition clue. He plays the guitar in the main room, and is rewarded with the Crystal Key.
Wade emails the locations of the gates and keys to Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto. He purposefully goes into debt under his fake identity, so that he'll be arrested by IOI, which has a system of making people who can't pay their debts become indentured servants.
They all meet virtually in Aech's private chat room to talk. Wade reveals all of the information he downloaded. He tells them a plan to send a mass email asking for everyone's help taking down the Sixers, who are guarding the Crystal Gate. when Shoto and Art3mis reveal that they are not in very safe locations, Ogden Morrow (Halliday's business partner) appears within the chat room. He offers to fly everyone to his mansion in Oregon (in real life.) The 4 gunters accept his offer, realizing that they will meet for the first time.
Aech comes to pick up Wade to drive him to the airport. When Wade enters her RV, he sees that a plump, African American woman about his age is driving. At first, he is shocked that Aech's true identity is so different from her online persona, but then he realizes that it doesn't make any difference; she's still his best friend.
Everyone arrives at Ogden's house, although Art3mis and Shoto decide not to meet the other two until after the contest is finished. Wade arrives to the castle in his robot, which is flooded with friendly avatars ready to fight for the four friends. The orb is disabled, and the main Sixer guy activates his huge robot, Mechagodzilla. Shoto distracts the Sixer, getting eliminated in the process. Wade activates the Beta Capsule to become huge and take the Sixer down. Then Art3mis, Aech, and Wade all get to the Crystal Gate and activate it. Before they can step inside, everyone dies in a huge explosion. (The Catalyst was activated.)
However, Wade gets an extra life because he has the quarter in his inventory. As he's searching for a way to reach the gate (which is now high above him since everything has been destroyed), he promises to split the money with his friends if he gets to the egg.
He enters the gate, and must get a high score on the game Tempest. Then he's put into a movie recreation of The Holy Grail. After completing that game, he enters a room with all of Halliday's computers/video game consoles. Wade figures out that the log on password is the name of the D&D character of the woman that Halliday loved. He then plays Adventure, getting to the room with the first video game Easter egg. Instead of the name of the creator of Adventure (as in the original game), there is Halliday's egg! Wade picks up the egg, gets transported into the castle, and meets up with Halliday's avatar. Halliday tells Wade that there is a secret button that will destroy the OASIS, but only Wade will have access to it. He also warns Wade that true happiness can only be found in reality.
Wade and friends are rich, everyone is happy, and the Sixer guy gets arrested in real life. Art3mis is waiting for Wade outside. He finally gets to meet her in person, where they kiss.
My Thoughts:
I loved this book. The premise is so much fun, the action is exciting, and there are tons of nerdy cultural references. (On the day when I read about Wade getting the Copper Key, I had just gotten back from a D&D game.)
Massive points to Cline for his vision of the OASIS, which is completely different from our the Internet today and also a plausible evolution of current technology. Creating believable future technology is one of the hardest things to do in science fiction.
I enjoyed all of the reference to 80s culture. (I still have to check out Zork.) The fast pace of the book made it hard to stop reading, and I was rooting for the characters the entire time.
Now for a few issues. I did feel that Wade's extensive knowledge of 80s culture was unrealistic. (He says he's watched The Holy Grail 157 times, that he's read every book on Halliday's overflowing shelf, and on top of that, he's a video game master, able to get a perfect score playing Pac-Man.) I know he devotes all of his free time to the pursuit of Halliday's egg, but I just think he wouldn't have the time to do all of these things.
I was also bothered when the "Chekhov's Gun" rule was broken. Wade buys a gun shortly after escaping from the Sixer compound. It's mentioned once or twice after, but there's never a situation where he even remotely needs to use it. I kept worrying that some bad guy was going to attack him at the end. I wish the author had just left out the bit about Wade buying a gun.
Overall, this book was excellent. I would recommend it to all of my friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment