Description
2040年，全球大部分的人每天起床第一件事就是登入「綠洲」。
經濟持續蕭條，能源嚴重枯竭，各地災荒四起，這個有史以來規模最大的虛擬實境遊戲漸漸取代了現實生活，無一不備的「綠洲」名副其實地成為人們身心的烏托邦。
有一天，所有玩家都收到「綠洲」創造者哈勒代的死訊。這位全球首富在遺囑中宣布：勇奪「程式彩蛋尋寶競賽」冠軍的人，就可以繼承他兩千四百億美金的遺產。這場全球性的競賽規則很簡單：只要在遊戲中找到三把鑰匙，打開三道門，率先尋獲哈勒代的「程式彩蛋」，就能奪冠。然而「綠洲」裡有數千個星球和城市，所有人都知道三把鑰匙就在某個角落，卻始終沒有人找到過。
直到五年後，默默無名的男孩韋德找到了第一把鑰匙。
現實生活中的他住在拖車裡，孤苦無依，在「綠洲」裡，他卻瞬間成了聞名遐邇的人氣獵蛋客。此刻他還未料想到——他將面臨背叛、猜忌、憤怒，與前所未有的巨大危機。因為這場競賽不僅攸關輸贏與獎金，更攸關他的生死……
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It was decent. A lot of filler in there but I enjoyed parts of it. Mostly the nostalgia
I wanted to like this more than I did. The basic premise was fascinating, and I did love all the puzzles and the whole idea of the game. It felt like a cross between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Westing Game, but geekier than both. The problem with it is that it is trying too hard to be relevant to old-school 80's geek culture. There were too many references, too many times where the character just happens to remember a strangely oblique reference to something that he had played years ago that honestly, even people living in the 80's had probably forgotten (and often for good reason). Yes, I understand that Wade devotes his life to the study of these things, but being able to retain the muscle memory to play all of these games (and 80's games, for those who have forgotten, were often very difficult to master) years after the last time he had played them, and to play them at such a level, stopped feeling lucky and started sliding into "...seriously?" territory pretty quickly. It started feeling less like he had studied and worked hard and more like he knew whatever the plot needed him to know, and that's always an uncomfortable feeling. In addition to that, the whole romance aspect was just awkwardly handled. Wade starts off as<spoiler>unattractive, but manages to slim down and become attractive just in time to meet this girl that he is interested in, and in addition to that, she is apparently the only character that looks like her (attractive) avatar. </spoiler>That just sort of smacks of wish fulfillment in an extreme way, and the objectification there feels awkwardly tacked on given the reality of a physical form doesn't really matter too much in the game. In the end I liked it in spite of these problems. It was a quick read with an interesting premise and some clever puzzles, and it would probably be an even better read for someone born a few years earlier than I was who would actually recognize more of the references than I did. It's worth a read if the premise sounds interesting, though probably not all the acclaim it is getting.
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.