Within Ready Player One  lies the story of teenager Wade Watts. Wade is like any other high schooler in the OASIS, except he has a small secret. He has the one in a million chance of inheriting Anorak’s fortune. Cline does an amazing job telling this story through Wade and his journey through the online world of the OASIS to be the one person to find and inherit the creator of the OASIS, Anorak’s, fortune after he passed away.
Right in the beginning Cline gets right to the point of telling us the entire backstory of this novel within the first two chapters. He explains that the OASIS is a “reality away from reality” where people can live their lives through their avatars. He also quickly informs us of who the main character is and his OASIS avatar (Parzival) within those two chapters as well.

The backstory is complex yet understandable to those who just start to read it. It speaks of Anorak’s fortune and how he has hidden his fortune and clues all throughout the OASIS so they can  find his fortune.. These clues are in the forms of riddles about references from the 1980’s since that was Anorak’s favorite time period and the OASIS was made to preserve that 1980’s nostalgia all within a virtual reality console. In a moment of curiosity and clue solving, Wade stumbles upon and solves the first clue launching Parzival to instant fame throughout the OASIS.

Throughout this story, there is tons of risk in whatever is about to happen, if someone in the OASIS dies, they have to create an entirely new avatar and start back at square one. Also, there is a group called the I0I which is trying to obtain Anorak’s fortune so they can take over the OASIS for their own benefit. Without the I0I, it would’ve probably just been a boring sci-fi/futuristic adventure novel, I think the addition of this enemy group is a smart move by Cline.

In conclusion, I think this is a worthwhile read that provides endless entertainment to those who are fans of futuristic video game-esque worlds and adventure novels. It has tons of suspense, thrills, action and drama in every chapter. Every chapter ends in a cliffhanger, leading the reader to want more. Cline has definitely made a masterpiece of a novel that will be loved by many for ages to come.