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Ready Player One
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
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Ready Player One
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Editor reviews
Earth’s future is bleak in the gripping sci-fi fantasy audiobook Ready Player One, written by the brilliant Ernest Cline and narrated by American actor Wil Wheaton. Set in the near future, most of the human race have locked themselves into a virtual reality to escape the planet that the past generations had destroyed. Within this virtual existence lies the answer to infinite riches and Wade Watts spends every second on the treasure hunt. It is a frenzied race with countless players, all infected with desperation. The danger is intense and will affect them all.
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
The book behind the major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.
Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.
A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?
It's the year 2044 and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty and disease are widespread.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of 10,000 planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late 20th century. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.
Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.
If you loved Ready Player One and can't wait for more, check out Armada, Ernest Cline's latest geek masterpiece!
Critic reviews
"Wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut." (Independent)
"Part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart." (CNN)
"Ernest Cline’s novel deserves to be a modern classic." (SciFiNow)
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What listeners say about Ready Player One
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Martin
- 22-09-16
Listened in 2 days.....
Best book I have listened to this year. I am not sure why the description did not really draw me to this book before but so glad I eventually gave in to curiosity. I am a big fan of online gaming, star trek, sci fi fantasy etc etc... so I am probably a bit nerdy I guess and I think it most definitely helps with this book. I enjoyed so much in this one, the 80's nostalgia mixed with the dystopian future just worked so well. Having Will Wheaton narrate this book was fantastic and made me smile a lot in certain places that it was him narrating, I am pretty sure he smiled himself at certain parts too whilst narrating. Aside from the fun part of him being narrator for obvious reasons he is actually a superb narrator and did such a good job with this, I would not hesitate to listen to him narrate anything. Love this story and everything about it.
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25 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alathia
- 14-02-15
You will not be able to pause this book
Would you consider the audio edition of Ready Player One to be better than the print version?
While I do not have the print version, the fact that Will Wheaton reads this is an undeniable plus.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Art3mis. She has conviction and drive, knows what she wants and goes for it. It's a world somewhat dominated by men but she manages to succeed via brains and personality. The virtual reality that most of the book takes place in means that her physical appearance is almost a non issue which is refreshing for a female character.
What about Wil Wheaton’s performance did you like?
His performance was perfectly pitched, he was clearly enjoying it himself and his sense of timing was brilliant. Best of all though is the fact that Wil Wheaton is actually mentioned in the story itself, he is part of the world. Hearing Wil Wheaton talk about Wil Wheaton just made me smile!
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I found the relationship between the Japanese brothers particularly moving, it's explained in more detail towards the end of the book and I found Shoto's talk with Wade in his fortress one of the best scenes in the whole book.
Any additional comments?
I read this because there was a lot of hype around it. In some ways I was a bit disappointed. It was far from an incredible read and I don't really get why some people consider it one of their favourite books.It was definitely enjoyable and I have rated it highly. It's a fast paced treasure hunt that I found very difficult to put down. In fact I kind of resented that I had to stop listening to it to work and sleep and talk to people. I really really wanted to know what was going to happen next and it was a very engaging read, even for someone with very little video game knowledge.However I wasn't hugely attached to any of the characters. Apart from the main character there wasn't a huge amount of character progression. The baddies are somewhat one dimensional and I found it difficult to believe that they had sufficient motivation for some of their actions. I just wasn't that attached. Possibly someone more into geek culture would get more out of this.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-01-18
Great story, shame about the narrator.
Ready Player One was a great story filled with edge of your seat action and and some very satisfying pay-offs. It ran the risk at times of becoming a little bit style over substance with in your face nostalgia, but consistently pulled it back with a genuinely immersive storyline and original theme. My only real concern lays not with the story itself but with the narrator; you're gonna have to listen to this on at least 1.25X speed in order to stop yourself from going mad!
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Niall Barnes
- 21-10-20
Wheaton is the perfect voice.
Can’t recommend enough. Wil Wheaton is an inspired casting for the book, one of the best performances I’ve heard from a narrator. MTFBWYA
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Starwarssteve
- 27-01-22
Great book but Wheaton is an annoying narrator
I've listened to Ready Player One a number of times. it's definitely better than the ridiculous movie, which makes no sense whatsoever.
Ernest Cline's love and knowledge of the 80s pop culture is phenomenon.
The story is gripping and fact paced and had a good twist towards the end.
the only problem is Wil Wheaton reading the book. he's a mid 40s man trying to talk as if he's a teenager, and he sounds like a muppet. he over emphasis certain words, which is annoying, for instance, the word poser, he pronounces it pos-ser. a number of he does similar things.
I get the feeling Wheaton and Cline know each, because Wil is mentioned in the book. Also he narrates Ready Pkayer 2 and Armada, which are both written by the same author.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M3
- 17-03-14
Fun story, excellent concept, but dodgy dialogue
Overall, I really enjoyed this. It whipped along at a decent pace and the concepts within the story were very interesting.
My only real issue is that a large amount of the dialogue is so corny to the point that it pulls you out of the story. I get that Wade is a teenager of the future - but if this is how people end up speaking, then it’ll be a bunch of people parroting cliches to one another.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C
- 06-09-17
Great experience
I grew up alongside many of the games, films etc that were mentioned although not a fan of any.
I still really, REALLY enjoyed both the story and the performance.
Thank you Ernest, thank you Wil!!!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adyonline
- 16-10-17
Fantastic
Half way through the book I found out that there is a film being made of the book and I now can't wait to see it! this is a great book with lots of twists and turns.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hilton Riddex
- 05-07-17
Epic!
I don't want to gush too much about how brilliant I thought this book was but it was bloody outstanding. Do yourself a favour and give it a listen, buy ...steal the book whatever just do it!
The voice acting is spot on. I literally could not wait to continue listening whenever I could get a chance. Thank you.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Justin Coyne
- 05-10-15
total nerd fest
You have to be a geek to like this one! Narration is excellent! This isn't anything new, but is very nicely put together.
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