About the book
Set in a bleak, poverty-stricken 2040s, Ernest Cline's debut science fiction novel follows Wade Watts, a teenager in Oklahoma City who escapes his grim surroundings in the OASIS, a vast virtual world where people play, study and work. Its late creator, James Halliday, has hidden an Easter egg inside, and whoever finds it by way of three keys and three gates will inherit his fortune and control of the OASIS. The clues draw on the 1980s pop culture Halliday loved, so Wade studies old games and films. Finding the first key makes him famous overnight and a target for rivals willing to kill for the prize. The novel won the Prometheus Award, and Steven Spielberg directed the film adaptation.
Andrej Karpathy described it as a highly enjoyable and very nerdy VR metaverse story with an anti-corporate streak that he could not put down, and serial entrepreneur Neal O'Gorman said it helped him appreciate how virtual reality could shape the future.
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This book has 5 recommendations
Neal O'Gorman (Serial Entrepreneur)
I'm not someone that chooses favourites, however, the most recent book that I got a lot out of and which, for me, spans both business and non-business is 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline.
It was recommended by the VP of Labs at Unity as a book to help appreciate the potential of how virtual reality can impact our future. It certainly achieved that. There's no doubt that it helped my mind delve into the potential opportunities that VR will provide both for Artomatix (an AI for art creation company I helped co-found) and many other startups.
It also is a fun read that references a lot of classic games from the 1980's and I'm looking forward to the movie that's coming out. Hopefully, the movie will be as good as the book.
Recommended by Fabrice Grinda (Serial Entrepreneur, Investor)
Source: Serial Entrepreneur & Investor Fabrice Grinda Reads Almost 100 Books Each Year
Recommended by Dominic Steil (CTO/Dapps Inc)
Source: Blockchain Books & Myths: Interview with Dominic Steil, CTO of Dapps Inc
Brian Burkhart (Founder & Chief Word Guy/SquarePlanet Presentations & Strategy)
The last novel I read was Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One: A Novel,” because my buddy Mike Maddock said, “You gotta read this book!” And I tore it up. I read the whole book in less than two days. It’s something I wish everyone, including myself, did more of.
VR Metaverse. Super nerdy. Down with corpo. Highly enjoyable. Total page turner.
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Neal O'Gorman, Fabrice Grinda, Dominic Steil, Brian Burkhart, Andrej Karpathy
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