Whenever I saw the sun, I reminded myself that I was looking at a star. One of over a hundred billion in our galaxy. A galaxy that was just one of billions of other galaxies in the observable universe. This helped me keep things in perspective.
I heard about Ready Player One from Andy Weir, author of The Martian. He recommended this book as his favourite Sci-Fi from the recent past in one of his reddit AMA. Andy Weir has even written a fan-fiction; the background story of one of the key characters, happening in the Ready Player One universe! The book is soon going to be a motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.
Ready Player One is a blend of 80’s pop culture and the futuristic world. You see a generation of people obsessed with all the classic movies, music and games you grew up with. Like Spielberg mentioned, “It was the most amazing flash-forward and flashback at the same time”.
The world in 2045 is at peril due to energy crisis and population explosion. People find comfort in Oasis, an online virtual world created by an acclaimed game developer, James Halliday. The death of James Halliday commences of a massive treasure hunt, which he created to pass his wealth and control of the Oasis to the right person. Like every other hunters, Wade, nicknamed as ‘Parzival’ in Oasis is also obsessed with the Halliday’s Easter Egg hunt. The story goes through his life. He finds the first clue five years after the death of the creator, giving hope to all the gunters (egg-hunters).
There is romance, retro video games, references to almost all of the Sci-Fi and fantasy movies of 80’s! This is a chance to see everything you miss from that era.
Where else can you find a bar with R2-D2 as DJ and order Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster to drink?
At the center of all that gear was the opening DJ, R2-D2, hard at work, using his various robotic arms to work the turntables. I recognized the tune he was playing: the ’88 remix of New Order’s “Blue Monday,” with a lot of Star Wars droid sound samples mixed in.
I read the book some time back. Then I listened to the audiobook version of it. I loved this book very much. This is one of my favourite Sci-Fi novels of all time.
The Mirror Dimension 