Ready Player One
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Ready Player One Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Ernest Cline (Author), Wil Wheaton (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 149,798 ratings
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

“Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly

A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself.

Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly San Francisco Chronicle Village Voice Chicago Sun-Times iO9 The AV Club

“Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost

“An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN

“A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe

“Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR

“[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

Previous page
  1. Listening Length
    15 hours and 40 minutes
  2. Author
    Ernest Cline
  3. Narrator
    Wil Wheaton
  4. Audible release date
    August 16, 2011
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B005HG7BWC
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 15 hours and 40 minutes
Author Ernest Cline
Narrator Wil Wheaton
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date August 16, 2011
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B005HG7BWC
Best Sellers Rank #481 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#3 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#7 in Hard Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#10 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
149,798 global ratings
It’s a good amazing book
5 Stars
It’s a good amazing book
I like it because it has some good references. It makes woman enter a contest.
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Top reviews from the United States

preston ailor
5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly my favorite book
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2024
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This is such a fun story. Action, adventure, nostalgia, friendship,and all the 80's pop culture references in a dystopian future. This book is so well written and moves fast. I've read it 4 or 5 times now and its definitely not the last.
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I. Parsons
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2019
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By my son, Noah, the reader & reviewer of this book...
Ready Player One was a thrilling adventure filled with science fiction, geeky references, and a creative outlook on the future. This book takes place in 2045. Most of the world’s resources have run out and there is an energy crisis that has driven many people out of a job. How do people deal with living in such a terrible world? The OASIS provides an escape for millions of people. It’s an online multiplayer game that allows millions of people to connect and explore. The creator of this OASIS became a multi billionaire named James Halliday. After he died, he created a contest for everyone in the OASIS to solve a bunch of clues using facts about his life. The winner would inherit all of his money and become the CEO of Gregarious Simulation Systems. Because this was such a good prize, millions of people studied Halliday and everything he did. Among these people was Wade Watts, an 18-year-old senior in high school. In order to obtain the Easter egg, you had to find the copper key and then find the first gate. After that, find the jade key and then the second gate. And lastly, find the crystal key and the third gate. Five years pass and no one can decipher the copper key riddle. Until one day in school, Wade figures it out. He becomes famous for being the first one to get his name onto the score board. However, he runs into his cyber crush, Art3mis. They hit it off and exchange contact information. She shortly completes the gate after him. Wade immediately finds the first gate and moves on while Nolan Sorrento, president of IOI blows up his home. More happens and eventually Wade is forced to work with Art3mis, his best friend Aech, and Shoto in order to open the third gate. He has thousands of people from the OASIS help him unleash a full-on attack on the Sixers (another name for the people at IOI). After all the effort, Wade wins the contest and finally gets to meet Art3mis in person.
Many characters change toward the end of the book. Art3mis neglects Wade to focus on the hunt regrets it because she enjoyed her time with Wade. James Halliday spent his entire life escaping his miserable life through video games. Before he dies, he tells Wade not to make the same mistake as him. However, Wade changed a lot throughout the entire book. He starts off as a regular teenage boy, just playing video games every waking second of his day, desperate to find the egg. He isolates himself completely from other people until he meets Art3mis. He starts focusing more of his time and energy on her rather than on the hunt. Before her, speaking to girls was out of the question. Also, his goals with what he would do with the money changed. At first, he just wanted to build a spaceship and fly far away from earth. But after meeting Art3mis, he wanted to help feed the hungry like she did. He became very selfless and even risked spending the rest of his life as an IOI indentured servant just to make sure people wouldn’t have to deal with IOI taking over the OASIS. At the very end, the author wanted to show the readers just how important it is to be in the real world. “It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS.” (pg 372) Staying logged onto the OASIS has removed so many people from reality and hurt their mental health. Sometimes, escaping in the real world, no matter how bad it is, is the right thing to do.
I thoroughly enjoyed every part of the book. While there were a lot of boring long descriptions, they were necessary. I loved how the characters changed a lot throughout the book and enhanced the theme. Teaching kids to not ignore the problems in the world and not just escape onto their phones is crucial. Ernest Cline was showing us what would happen if we simply did nothing and I hope this was a wakeup call for everyone. I liked the dialog and how the characters connected. I feel like Cline really captured the true essence of a friendship. Wade was also a good character. Some his lines and sayings were funny, and this made him a likeable protagonist. Some of the plot points were good as well. I would’ve never thought to have Wade become an indentured servant to penetrate IOI from the inside. That was really creative. I also enjoyed all of the references in the book, even though I didn’t understand most of them. And the way he incorporated them in the riddles was just absolutely brilliant. This is my second time reading the book and I enjoyed it so much. I’m sure all the nerds out there (especially ones who were teens in the 80’s) really appreciated this work of art
6 people found this helpful
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Jerry
4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining read for a targeted audience
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2017
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First and foremost, your enjoyment of this book will be directly correlated to your enjoyment and nostalgia for 80's pop culture, most notably early era video games, music, and movies. I love a lot of that stuff, so simply reading about a book framed with topics I enjoy make this book a worthwhile read for me. The story does serve to weave many of these cultural references into a YA tale about a boy on a quest to solve a riddle. A reader's reaction to the title itself would probably be a decent indicator of how much you will like the rest of the book. I would ideally like to give this book a 3.5ish rating, because I enjoyed it more than just "it's ok", but the highly specific subject matter prevent it from being a "general read"

Pros:

When the book evokes memories of things long forgotten and expounds on them in a way you probably haven't though about for years, you do feel a satisfying sense of understanding. In many books, for myself at least, a description of an item may be ambiguous enough for me to not quite know whether the image I have in my head is accurate, but by relying on mostly things that exist, you KNOW when your mental image is spot on.

Our main character has a lot of knowledge pertaining to his quest before the book even begins, but I bought his expertise. This may be a stumbling block for some, but it's clear that our protagonist (and author perhaps?) has spent almost a lifetime amassing knowledge required to complete his task, and while it does lead to some hand holding on his part for us, the audience, I never felt like it was TOO far of a jump.

Cline does weave in a lot of his own fictional history alongside actual 80's pop culture in a believable manner. The trail of breadcrumbs that marks the main quest throughout the story is littered with games, books, and movies both real and factual, and the line is blurred well enough that many times I wasn't exactly sure if something mentioned actually existed, or was created solely for the story. This neatly leads into a plausible extrapolation of the future of technology and video games.

Following the thread of the main riddle is entertaining and highly driving. The actual clues aren't really intended to be "solved" by the reader, rather than followed. Our protagonist is the brains of the operation here, not us. It's a fun ride along, sort of like watching a magic trick be performed. You don't have to figure out the inner workings prematurely to enjoy the show.

The largely virtual setting of the story does allow for some fairly imaginative combinations of people and places, reminiscent of playing with a toy box full of dolls and action figures from all sorts of shows, cartoons etc. sort of mashed together in a sort of wish fulfilling way, not too much unlike seeing the many different Lego sets being used together in "The Lego Movie"

Cons:

While the references I got were satisfying, there were some parts where familiarity was implied and I felt a bit "out of the loop", particularly when referencing music from that era. the description might be "x song by y artist was playing", but with no other description of the song, I didn't know whether it was happy, sad, suspenseful, intense etc. It definitely isn't a show stopper by any means, and the context of the scenarios do help inform the tone, but sometimes requisite knowledge seemed just that--a prerequisite to understanding what was happening.

Wade, our protagonist, seems to flip flop between self loathing, overly confident, childish, meticulous, immature, mastermind whenever necessary for the plot to progress. He doesn't seem so much like a dynamic character as much as possessing a convenient set of switches to flip when appropriate. Maybe a different style of writing would better suite bridging or informing these changes, but as it stands he almost seems like many different people controlling one body at different times

Side characters are flat as pancakes. The permanent character list in this novel is already pretty small, but even the characters we have besides our protagonist are very one note. [MILD SPOILERS]]While some characters aren't exactly as they seem, even those differences when revealed turn out to be mostly superficial. [END SPOILERS] There are even Japanese characters that read completely like what a typical american would think a Japanese person is like, complete with adding "-san" to the ends of names and talking about honor.

My last con is pretty plot specific so it might bare no relevance until you actually read the book so [MILD SPOILERS] Wade goes through a drastically life altering change that should have been the fire for the rest of his quest, but it seemed like little more than a plot device to cleanly allow him to be unchained from realistic consequences of his situation. It almost seemed like a quick and sloppy way to get rid of baggage as opposed to a full blown emotional catharsis. In fact, after it happens, it's mentioned maybe twice throughout the remainder of the book [END SPOILERS]

All in all, the book does have heart, even if it is buried in an old trunk of 80's memories. There is an Earnest (no pun intended) core that you can feel throughout, and that emotional attachment and love for the source material really does frame the story. As I said before, if the era and source material seem interesting to you, then you will definitely get something out of this. If you're skeptical, the first few chapters will definitely help you decide whether it's for you or not, so previewing an excerpt is probably a good idea. If you don't really care for the material, then this book isn't going to change your mind.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than the movie
Reviewed in Germany on February 18, 2024
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I really enjoyed reading it. Great story for nerds and gamer.
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harish gupta
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Sci-fi books available on market!!
Reviewed in India on March 20, 2023
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Ready Player One is a thrilling adventure with an intriguing plot, captivating characters, and a unique virtual world. Cline's writing style is exciting and fast-paced, drawing readers into the virtual world of the OASIS. The characters are well-developed and real, and the book has great depth and detail. The story is full of suspense and surprise, and readers will find themselves rooting for Wade and his friends as they battle the corporate villains.

It follows the story of Wade Watts, a teenage orphan living in a crowded future-world where the only escape is the virtual universe of the OASIS. When the creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves a challenge to find an Easter egg hidden within the virtual world. When Wade finds the egg, he must battle a powerful corporation to prevent them from taking over the OASIS and destroying it.

Overall, Ready Player One is a great read for fans of science fiction and virtual reality. It is a captivating adventure that will keep readers hooked from beginning to end. Highly recommended!
Thank you
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liv
4.0 out of 5 stars Gift
Reviewed in Sweden on January 16, 2023
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Gifted my older brother this book as he loves the movie, he was mighty pleased!
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Laura Machado
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Brazil on May 30, 2018
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Se alguém te falar que para gostar desse livro, é preciso entender as referências dos anos oitenta, estão mentindo. Eu nasci em 91 e, vai saber por quê, nunca tive muito interesse pela década de oitenta, apesar do meu filme e música favoritos serem dela. De todas as referências do livro, só entendi mesmo a do DeLorean, por causa do De Volta para o Futuro ser o amor da minha vida, do Dungeons and Dragons e a da Ms. Pac Man. Todo o resto para mim foi novidade, e ainda assim consegui amar a história praticamente do começo ao fim.

Na verdade, tenho duas críticas para o livro. A primeira é que tem referências demais mesmo. Acho que o autor estava tentando fazer homenagem a tanta coisa, que passou um pouco do limite. Mas talvez esse número de informações não teria sido tão esmagador se não viesse com tantas explicações sempre, o que é minha segundo crítica. Infelizmente, dá para ver desde o começo do livro que o autor usa muito de explicações na sua narração. E não é só na hora de dizer de que ano e para qual função etc o jogo que ele mencionou é, mas em muitas das ações mesmo. Todas as melhores partes do livro são as mais presenciais e que têm um tom mais de prosa do que de uma história repassada por terceiros.

Por causa disso, o ritmo do livro cai um pouco em algumas partes, o que eu consegui superar e impedir de me desanimar, já que li rápido e só parava quando estava no meio de uma parte emocionante. Essa é uma mania minha, de sempre parar de ler só quando algo importante está acontecendo e estou realmente animada para continuar, que aí fica bem difícil desanimar. Quem tiver menos tempo para ler e for obrigado a ler de pouco em pouco vai sentir mais essa quebra no ritmo e esse excesso de informações. Só tenho uma coisa a dizer a quem desanimar: continue, porque o final é ótimo!

Aliás, o livro é dividido em três partes e a terceira é de longe a melhor. Simplesmente amei o clímax, amei a resolução e admiro muito o autor por ter conseguido criar um final que fosse aumentando mesmo o nível, como em jogos de videogame, sem parecer forçado ou exagerado. O enredo da história e seu desenvolvimento, aliás, são impecáveis, o que definitivamente vai me fazer dar uma chance para outros livros do autor. Sem contar com o apego que criei pelos personagens, que não é das coisas mais frequentes para mim.

Estou extremamente feliz de ter decidido ler este livro, que me surpreendeu completamente e foi divertido do começo ao fim. Apesar das minhas críticas, me apaixonei completamente pela história e pelos personagens e senti desde antes da página cem que ele entraria na minha lista de favoritos. E é por isso que dei nota cinco. Os pequenos defeitos não importam quando a história é tão incrível e bem desenvolvida quanto a desse livro. Ele conseguiu fazer com que eu, uma pessoa que só jogou uns cinco jogos de videogame e um RPG na vida, mergulhasse completamente na história e me divertisse como se tivesse crescido nos anos oitenta. Simplesmente amei.
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Cliente de Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Reviewed in Mexico on February 19, 2018
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It’s a good book! Honestly I didn’t expect so much but I was wrong. If you’re a gamer or you used to be a gamer, you will love this book. All the pop references are great! The ending I didn’t like it so much, but still loving the whole concept and characters. In addition, the whole novel is like the description of an utopia inside a catastrophic scenario. So, I recommend this book a lot, no matter if you don’t want to see the coming soon movie.
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