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끝없이 팽창하는 가상유토피아 오아시스(OASIS)는 누구든 원하는 사람으로 변신할 수 있는 곳이자 수만 개의 행성 어디에서든 살며 사랑하며 즐길 수 있는 곳이다. 오아시스의 창시자 제임스 할리데이는 퍼즐을 푸는 사람에게 막대한 부와 엄청난 권력을 안겨줄 교묘한 수수께끼들을 이 거대한 가상놀이터 오아시스 어딘가에 숨겨두었고, 그가 남긴 유일한 단서는 그가 몰두했던 1980년대 대중문화에 뿌리를 두고 있다는 사실뿐이다. 여느 사람들처럼 ‘웨이드 와츠’ 역시 오아시스라는 가상세계에 숨겨진 지상 최고의 복권에 당첨되기를 꿈꾼다.
그러던 어느 날 웨이드는 우연히 첫 번째 수수께끼를 푸는 데 성공한다. 하루아침에 온 세상의 주목이 쏟아지고 웨이드를 꺾고 상금을 차지하기 위해서라면 진짜 살인도 마다치 않을 무서운 힘을 가진 자들까지 대회에 뛰어든다. 웨이드가 살아남아 자신이 아는 모든 비밀을 지키는 길은 오직 우승뿐이다. 하지만 우승을 위해서는 더없이 완벽한 가상현실 속 자아를 뒤로하고, 필사적으로 도망치기만을 원했던 현실세계의 삶에, 그리고 사랑에 정면으로 맞서야만 하는데…….
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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.