Summary of Ready Player One
Ready Player One, written by Ernest Cline, takes place in a futuristic virtual reality called the OASIS. In this book, the main character, Wade/Parzival, and the rest of the world have been enveloped in this new advanced “video game”. Everything in the OASIS is extremely realistic, and easy to interact with. In fact, most of the entire book takes place in the OASIS. The OASIS serves as an escape from the real world, which is riddled with overpopulation, poverty, and an energy shortage. In Ready Player One, the creator of the OASIS, James Donovan Halliday, has just died. In his will, he stated that he would give away his entire fortune and the OASIS to the person who could find the “easter egg” hidden in the OASIS. In order to find the Egg, a player must find the Copper, Jade, and Crystal Key, and use these 3 keys to unlock 3 gates. The only clue Halliday left in his will was a poem; “Three hidden keys open three secret gates; Wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits; And those with the skill to survive these straits; Will reach The End where the prize awaits.” Suddenly the whole world has been turned on its head. OASIS users everywhere have started to try and find Halliday’s Easter Egg, and the whole book revolves around Wade’s struggles while trying to get the Egg.
In Ready Player One, there is the development of the “High Five”. These are the people who obtained the Copper Key first. Wade is the main character in this book, and the book is in the 1st person point of view of Wade. He is the first person to get the Copper Key. Aech is Wade’s best friend, and the third person to get the Copper Key. He is considered to be one of the greatest fighters in the OASIS. Art3mis is Wade’s cyber-crush and owns one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. She is the second person to get the Copper Key. Daito and Shoto are Japanese “brothers” who are the fourth and fifth people to get the Copper Key. They are suspicious about the other members’ intentions and isolate themselves from the others for a while. From the very beginning of the book, the villain starts to play a role in the Hunt. Sorrento and his army of Sixers are hired by the IOI to work together and find the Egg. If the OASIS falls into the IOI’s hands, it will become covered with advertisements, and the IOI will charge a monthly fee to access the OASIS. Because of the IOI’s evil intentions, all the “gunters” looking for the Egg, especially the “High Five”, have denounced the Sixers as an evil clan.
In this Sci-Fi novel, Wade’s biggest desire is to get Halliday’s Easter Egg. He wants to try to escape the poverty he currently lives in by winning Halliday’s fortune. Not only will the Hunt potentially make him extremely wealthy, the Hunt also gives Wade something to live for. Since Wade lives in poverty, life is boring to him. But since the Hunt ever got announced, he now has a goal in life. He something to wake up for and look forward to. Just like all the other OASIS users, the Hunt and the OASIS give him a distraction from the real world, and allows him to be whoever he wants to be. Also, the major conflict in the novel is Wade against Sorrento and the Sixers. Since the IOI plans to turn the OASIS into a “corporate-run dystopia”, Wade and the other users want to defeat the Sixers in order to get their hands off the OASIS. The IOI does many terrible things with Wade throughout the book. From attempted murder to indenturement, the actions taken against Wade make it clear that there is a tense conflict between the Sixers and Wade.
One of the first major events is Wade getting the Copper Key. Using a free transportation voucher given by his school, Wade travels to the other side of Ludus in order to get closer to the Tomb of Horrors, where the Copper Key is located. Running at top speed, Wade uncovers the Tomb of Horrors, and jumps in. He navigates through the maze in the tomb, and meets face-to-face with Acererak the Demi-Lich. Acererak challenges him to a best 2 out of 3 game of “Joust”. Winning the last 2 of the 3 games, Wade gets the Copper Key, and becomes the first person to do so. On the way out of the tomb, he meets Art3mis, and realizes that he wasn’t the first one to find the Tomb of Horrors. Wade then travels to Middletown, and re-enacts the movie WarGames, acting as David Lightman. After finishing the movie, Wade unlocks the First Gate.
Another major event in Ready Player One is the break-up between Wade and Art3mis. Wade and Art3mis go to Morrow’s 73rd birthday party. At one point during the party, Wade declares his love to Art3mis. Art3mis decides that their relationship has gone too far, and cuts her ties with Wade. He is devastated and goes into a state of depression. Wade starts to isolate himself entirely from the rest of the world, and spends most of his remaining money on OASIS tools. He even removes all the hair off his body because he wants his haptic suit to fit on better. This part of the book shows us how dependent Wade is on Art3mis and his reliance on the OASIS.
The third major event that takes place is Wade obtaining the Jade Key. Using a hint received from an email sent by Aech, Wade travels to Frobozz and plays the game “Zork”. He gathers the game’s 19 treasures and puts them in the trophy case. After blowing the Cap’n Crunch whistle, Wade obtains the Jade Key. However, before he can unlock the Second Gate, Daito is killed by the Sixers, in the OASIS and in real life. Wade meets with Shoto, and they both vow revenge on the Sixers for their evil deed. Shortly after the meeting, Wade figures out how to get to the Second Gate. He travels to planet Axrenox, and finds a copy of the Tyrell Building. Wade then goes inside the building, and plays “Black Tiger”. After the beating the game, Wade unlocks the Second Gate.
The last major event is the battle on Castle Anorak, and the victory for Wade. Having already obtained the Crystal Key, Wade purposely indentures himself in order to hack the IOI’s maintenance control panel. He programmed a droid to kill the Sixer wizard who held the Orb of Osuvox. After the force field is gone, full havoc takes place on Castle Anorak. Using the Beta Capsule, Wade transforms into Ultraman and takes out Sorrento, who transformed into Mechagodzilla. But just as Wade, Art3mis, and Aech are about to go into the Third Gate, the Sixers detonate the Cataclyst, killing everyone on the planet. But, as it turns out, Wade has been given an extra life. The seemingly useless quarter he got from playing a perfect game of Pac-Man let him have another shot at clearing the Third Gate! With help from the others, Wade clears the high score on the game “Tempest” and re-enacts the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” in order to clear the Third Gate. After beating these challenges, Wade meets Anorak, Halliday’s avatar, and receives immortality in the OASIS and Halliday’s fortune in credits. After logging out of the OASIS, Wade finally gets to see Art3mis in real life. Once again, Wade declares his love to Art3mis, and they kiss on the bench, ending the book. Winning the contest and kissing Art3mis in real life fulfill Wade’s wants, so Wade does get what he really wants in the end.
The theme of this book is that reality is what really matters in life. Reality is something you can’t avoid. Wade learns this throughout the book. In the beginning, he acknowledges the fact that the OASIS allows him to be happy in a world where is in poverty. During almost the whole book, Wade’s life is centered around the Hunt and the OASIS. But in the end, he finally realizes that the OASIS isn’t everything in life. On the last page of the book, Wade says “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.” This shows that Wade realized that reality is real, and that it is the one place where you can find true happiness.
