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Description edit
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... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
A story where players engage in a simultaneous game of life and a computer world.
Characters/People edit
- Wade Owen Watts: Main Character. 17-18 years old. Primary gunter in the hunt and on the run from the Sixers. This is his real name.
- James Donovan Halliday: Creator of the Oasis as well as many other video games including the hunt that takes place within the Oasis.
- Aech: Gunter, primary competitor in the hunt, and Wade's best friend. Aech runs a "chat room" where he and Parzival frequently meet to talk and laugh.
- Art3mis: Gunter and primary competitor in the hunt. Wade's romantic interest.
- Parzival: Wade Watts' avatar name in the Oasis
- Nolan Sorrento: CEO of IOI and head of the Sixers. Evil overlord and Wade's nemesis.
- Ogden Morrow: Long time friend and partner of James Halliday. Helped create the Oasis and was the face of their corporation.
- Shoto: Gunter and primary competitor in the hunt.
- Anorak: James Halliday's character name when playing RPG's as well as his avatar's name in the Oasis
- Daito: Gunter and primary competitor in the hunt.
- Mr. Ciders: Wade's Advanced OASIS Studies teacher
- Mrs. Rank: Wade's Latin teacher
- Mr. Avenovich: Wade's World History teacher
- Todd13: A jerk that goes to Wade's school
- I-r0k: A friend of Aech. Aech keeps him around for humor.
- Steven Pendergast: A MIT student that shared a "discovery" he found with the media for his 15 minutes of fame. After that when a person goes public with a clue it is known as "pulling a Pendergast."
- Karen "Kira" Underwood: Odgen's high school sweetheart that he later marries. She is the 1st Gregarious Games employee.
- Alice: Wade's aunt that really doesn't want him living with her.
- Rick: Alice's live-in boyfriend
- Mrs. Gilmore: Wade's sweet neighbor several trailers down.
Quotes edit
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“No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.”
Wade/Parzival -
“People who live in glass houses should shut the fuck up.”
Anorak's Almanac -
“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”
Waid/Parzival -
“I never ran out of ammo, because each time I fired a round, a new round was teleported into the bottom of the clip. My bullet bill this month was going to be huge.”
Wade/Parzival -
“You know you've totally screwed up your life when your whole world turns to shit and the only person you have to talk to is your system agent software!”
Wade/Parzival -
“I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life, right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real”
Anorak/Halliday
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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“People who live in glass houses should shut the fuck up.”
Highlighted by 240 Kindle customers -
Douglas Adams. Kurt Vonnegut. Neal Stephenson. Richard K. Morgan. Stephen King. Orson Scott Card. Terry Pratchett. Terry Brooks. Bester, Bradbury, Haldeman, Heinlein, Tolkien, Vance, Gibson, Gaiman, Sterling, Moorcock, Scalzi, Zelazny.
Highlighted by 238 Kindle customers -
“No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.”
Highlighted by 180 Kindle customers -
I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal. —Groucho Marx
Highlighted by 167 Kindle customers -
Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable.
Highlighted by 114 Kindle customers -
Like most gunters, I voted to reelect Cory Doctorow and Wil Wheaton (again).
Highlighted by 96 Kindle customers -
Technically, this wasn’t part of my research, but I had a serious cute-geeky-girls-playing-ukuleles fetish that I can neither explain nor defend.
Highlighted by 82 Kindle customers -
Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation was a big place.
Highlighted by 72 Kindle customers -
“You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada.”
Highlighted by 62 Kindle customers -
Going outside is highly overrated. —Anorak’s Almanac, Chapter 17, Verse 32
Highlighted by 49 Kindle customers
Organizations edit
- IOI: Evil corporation chasing the egg to gain control of the OASIS.
- GSS - Gregarious Systems Simulations: Halliday's Company that created the OASIS.
- Halcydonia International: Ogden and Kira's non-profit educational software company They created free interactive adventure games for children.
First Sentence edit
Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest.
Table of Contents edit
0000
Level One
0001 - 0016
Level Two
0017 - 0028
Level 3
0029 - 0039
Themes & Symbolism edit
Series & Lists edit
This is book 9 of 10 in Amazon.com Best Books of August (2011). (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Leftovers, and followed by Girls in White Dresses.
This book is in Amazon.com Best Books of 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in 2011 Published Books. (community list)
This book is in 2011 Locus Recommended Reading List: First Novels. (authoritative list)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Crown
Country: United States
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-88745-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Country: United States
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-88745-0
Page Count: 384
Awards edit
- Alex Awards (2012)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3603.L548R43
- Dewey: 813
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Add the suggested reading level for this book.There is a substantial amont of language, though for the most part it's not all in one slured sentence. The characters often use the s-word the most.
Subjects edit
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- Number One Novels: An interview with debut author Ernest Cline.
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