Ready Player One (Ready Player One #1)

Ready Player One (Ready Player One #1)

Ernest Cline

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines- puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.
But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win- and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
Excerpt taken from book.

Language

H***- 35

S***- 40

A**- 38

B****- 6

F***- 9

D***- 16

Bas****- 13

Religious Cursing-

J****- 1

Chr***- 4

G**- 8

Derogatory terms etc-

Blow me -1

Pussy- 2

Flipped the bird- 5

Fag

Moron

Dick

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A young mom takes drugs to “escape real-life,” and ends up killing herself with those drugs.  Her son found her on their couch with a needle sticking out of her arm.

A young man finds his aunt much more agreeable when she’s high.

A young man jokes to his friend that he must be stoned.

A man grows up with an alcoholic father.

A couple order drinks from a bartender.

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

A mother’s second job is as an escort on an online brothel.  Her young son could hear her “talking dirty to tricks.”

A young man jokes to another that he has to go home and be breast-fed by his mom.  

A young man states that he’s too busy for trivia because he’s getting laid.  

One young man asks another if he’s jerking off to a movie.

A young woman jokes about a cyber-porn addiction.

A young woman briefly kisses a young man.   

A young man tells a young woman he’s a virgin.  

A young man spends weeks in a virtual brothel.  He realizes it’s just glorified masterbating so he gets rid of it then continues to masterbate on his own.   He feels no shame about masterbating, but now looks at is as a normal part of existence. “…virtual sex, no matter how realistic, was really glorified, computer-assisted masturbation.  At the end of the day, I was still a virgin, all alone in a dark room, humping a lubed-up robot.” “…masturbation is the human animal’s most important adaption. The very cornerstone….Our hands…grip tools, even our own.  …geeks have a harder time getting laid than anyone. Without the built-in sexual release valve provided by masturbation, it’s doubt humans would have ever master the secrets of fire or discovered the wheel. And you can bet…(famous scientists) never would have made their discoveries if they hadn’t first been able to clean their heads by slapping the salami.  The same goes for Marie Curie. .. you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe.”

A lot of celebrities and pornographers charged by the hour for people to access their virtual lives.  Amateur porn from soccer moms or foot fetish videos were available to watch virtually. .

In a game a young man finds himself dressed like a video game hero; a barbarian in an armored thong and horned helmet.  

A man going to jail has a tiny gaming console hidden in his testicles.  

Celebrity sex tapes are available to watch.  

A young man rents what is similar to unlimited internet access cubicle.  The man who rents it to him tells him that anything he leaves behind, such as semen, he will keep the deposit money.  

A young woman is gay and it tells the story of her coming out.  

While holding hands, a young woman leans over and kisses a young man.  

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

Gunfire is commonly heard in a neighborhood.  

A man threatens a teen with his fist if he doesn’t hand over his laptop.  

Robbing, raping and then selling your organs on the internet is commonplace.

A young man makes his first video game and it involves much of his life such as finding food vouchers, avoiding pedophiles and meth addicts on the way to school.   

A group of people breaks into a club and start shooting blaster pistols.  People fought back with magic using laser bolts, bullets, and fireballs. A couple start firing back at the people and get hit multiple times but their gear keeps them safe.  One person shot the invaders and vaporized them all.

Avatars typically carry weapons such as blaster pistols, swords or something similar.  Protective gear is necessary in many situations.

A young man has to ‘kill’ virtual men in a game he is playing.

Some repo men break into a young man’s house and arrest him.  They use plasma lasers to cut his door down and each carry a stun gun.  

There are vending machines that sell guns, ammo and armor.  One young man buys each of these things.

A large battle of avatars involved giant robots smashing other avatars, fireballs, missiles, laser bolts, laser beams, arrows, swords, etc.   One avatar is blasted to pieces and “dies,” another is blasted, his robot falling apart and he is “killed” also. Two avatars had a brief battle with a few other avatars and before the avatars faded away, their bloodied bodies were visible.  

A young avatar kills 18 enemy avatars in a split second with one shot.  They fade from existence.

Potentially Intense Themes

The time frame of the book is around 2040’s and the world is having an energy crisis, multiple   wars, famine, and many more problems that make living in that time difficult.

A young man’s father was shot and killed while looting a grocery store during a blackout.

A woman dies in a car accident on an icy mountain road.

A man threatens to blow up a young man’s home which has about a dozen people inside.  When the young man doesn’t do what he wants, he blows it up and kills many more people than just in his home.  

Three  people had jumped off a building in the past 6 months.  A young man considers doing the same thing.

A group of gamers grabbed a man from his chair and threw him off a building.  Another man had video of this.