Episode 22 – Book Club: Ready Player One

It’s Book Club day! In this episode, Liz and Heather discuss Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Obviously, this episode will be full of spoilers, so make sure you have read the book or, even better, listened to the audiobook narrated by Wil Weaton!

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Summary (From the Publisher)

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake … A quest for the ultimate prize … Are you ready? (From the publisher.).

Note: Both Heather and Liz listened to the audio book.

The nostalgia factor on this book for anyone who grew up in the 1980s is absolutely off the charts. The references to pop culture are so great, you could split a lip. The real world in this book is not that great, so pretty much the entire planet lives and works inside a virtual reality platform called The Oasis. The story picks up after the death of Halliday, the creator of the Oasis with a contest that would lead someone to become the sole heir to his fortune and become the ruler of the Oasis.

Egg hunters = Gunters (Liz hates this word) around the world have been looking, with zero success for years, until Wade finds the first key. Then, all of the sudden, the game is back on and Wade is now being actively perused by everyone on the planet, but especially by the evil Sorrento and his league of professional gunters (the Sixers), who are willing to commit very real murder in order to take control of The Oasis.

This is a long episode, so settle in with your favorite boozylicious cocktail and listen to us talk about this awesome book.

(FYI – Ernest Cline, as of this podcast, is 43 years old, so he is 4 years older than Nerdy Bitch Liz.)

Recommendations

  • Heather: The public library. The actual library. Go there. You can actually get e-books through your device from the library!
  • Liz: Plexus Slim (aka “the pink drink”) – This stuff is changing my life! Since I began taking it back in June, I have slept better, lost weight/inches, gotten rid of my eczema, and have lost all sciatic back pain! It even cut my smoking so far back without even trying, so it has been a money saver too! If you want to know more, you can e-mail me at liz@nerdybitches.com and I will be happy to tell you all about it. If you already know a crazy Plexus lady, talk to them about it. But, otherwise, I would love to change your life. If this stuff can help me (and I’m a medical mutant), I just know it can help anyone. [End salesy stuff]

Bitch of the week – STOP BODY SHAMING PEOPLE! Especially pregnant people! Not cool, dude. And thigh gap is stupid. Just stop shaming people all over. Fat, thin, short, tall, pregnant, whatever – just keep your trap shut!

Next Book Club – Dark Disciple by Christie Golden – This is one of the new canon books in the Star Wars Saga. We will be joined by some other awesome nerdy bitches in studio to discuss this book. Read and learn about the character Asajj Ventress and what she gets done.

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