I finally finished reading READY PLAYER ONE last night. It’s not really a long book, but it took me well over a month to get through it. That’s a surprise given how much I enjoyed it. In short, the book was freaking awesome. If you grew up in the ’80s and love video games, this is a must read. Seriously.

My favorite part was the world-building. Fifty or so years in the future, a video game developer creates the Oasis, a virtual world that everyone lives in. They buy expensive immersion rigs, gloves, and other gadgets to make it feel as if they’re really in that world, and many kids go to virtual schools. Everyone has an avatar who may or may not look like them, and they can hang out in chat rooms or teleport to the Firefly world or the Star Trek universe. If you have enough money, you can create your own world even.

Other cool things: there are zones where magic works and zones where science works, so if somebody has a really awesome, super expensive, scientifically based ship, but enters a magic zone, that really awesome, super expensive, scientifically based ship won’t work.

There are PVP (player versus player) zones and non PVP zones. That led to some cool developments in the story.

Oh, and the story! Coolest premise ever! The person who developed the Oasis - and the richest man on the planet – dies and in his will, he creates a game for everyone to play. The person who wins gets his fortune and control of the Oasis. So, everyone starts playing this game, researching the 1980s, the decade the developer grew up in and loved, to try to figure out exactly where the easter egg is (long story, but just think of it as a trophy).

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but it took me so freaking long to read it. I’m not sure why. If I like a book, I usually read it in a few days. It doesn’t take me a month, and I’m usually not impatient for the end. I don’t know if it was because this book had a ton of exposition or if it’s just simply because it’s not a romance (though it did have a romantic subplot, I guess, just not an incredibly engaging one for me).

But this book was exactly what it should have been. Even though I might have turned the pages faster if there was less exposition, a more heart-wrenching romance, and more active action, I’m not sure it would have been right for this book. In other words, it’s not the book’s fault it took me so long to read it; it’s mine. It was a fun story, and I hope they make a movie* of it soon!

*I think Warner Bro has the rights to it.