https://padlet.com/2020molaughlin/k5hx1u21uu4p Made with good vibes en-us 2018-09-19 14:01:14 UTC 2018-09-21 04:58:58 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Planets.png 2020molaughlin https://padlet.com/2020molaughlin/k5hx1u21uu4p/wish/283435484 Set in the now dystopian United States, Colombus, Ohio 2045. The Earth is plagued with a devistating energy crisis, economic crash, and poverty all around. Protagonist Wade Watts embarks on a life changing quest as he hunts for Video Game design legend James Halliday's hidden easter egg. James Halliday is the creator of the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), a huge massive multiplayer online game full of worlds to explore. Here, people all over the Earth go to escape reality and log into a world made of pure imagination. Every single book written, video game published, and movie produced is archived in the OASIS for players to have at their disposal. The best part about this expansive world, is that it only costs twenty five cents to buy the hardware, and free to make an account. When Halliday dies, a pre-recorded message was announced that he had hidden an "easter egg" deep within the OASIS. Only the most clever of players will be able to uncover it. The first person to uncover the egg will inherit Halliday's fortune as well as control over the OASIS and the company. Wade makes it his life goal to be the winner. Through years of tedious James Halliday research, video game lore and history knowledge, and exploration of the OASIS, Watts becomes an esteemed "gunter." Gunters are an abbreviation of the title "egg hunters." Some gunters join clans and vow to split the rewards among the group, others fly solo and search on their own. All gunters share one thing though, a hatred for I.O.I (Innovative Online Industries). IOI is a rival company to Halliday's own Gregarious Games Simulation Systems. IOI plans to monopolize off of the OASIS and charge monthly user fees as well as activation fees and paid subscriptions. The story is an astonishing race between Wade and his friends and IOI to solve Halliday's puzzles and claim the ultimate easter egg. The future of the OASIS and the world at large depends on the outcome...

Ready Player One is an absolute must-read if you are into science fiction. It explores and invokes the creative genius inside all of us as it toys with reality perception, real world issues and awareness of those issues, and goal orientation. The story is exciting and fun to examine as your video game knowledge and intuition are put to the test on every page. I highly recommend this book to all sci-fi readers and video game fans.

View the book's goodreads page here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571-ready-player-one?from_search=true]]> 2018-09-19 14:05:46 UTC https://padlet.com/2020molaughlin/k5hx1u21uu4p/wish/283435484 2020molaughlin https://padlet.com/2020molaughlin/k5hx1u21uu4p/wish/283435763 The year is 2086. The humans are engaged in an interplanetary war against a brutal hive-mind alien race known as the "Buggers" or "Formics" due to their striking resemblance to insect creatures of our own planet. Two wars have already been fought, and a third is imminent. Earth is in desperate need of a new hero. 6 year old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin turns out to be the perfect candidate. Ender is recruited by the International Fleet (IF) and sent to combat school, a huge stellar satellite station orbiting Earth. Here, kids from all over the world are brought and trained to be skilled combatants, tacticians, navigatiors, and commanders. Down on Earth, Ender's equally smart siblings Peter and Valentine use their unique demagogue skills to waver the unsteady political situation vexing nations in the world. They assume online personas and write commentary on the nets. Peter in particular, has goals of his own. At battle school, Ender makes friends and enemies. He strengthens those he is allied with and destroys those he is not. Most importantly however, he learns how to truly be a commander. When the Buggers and the Humans confront once more, it will be the last time.

Although written in 1985, this book will outlive us all. It has withstood and will continue to withstand the test of time. Because these children at battle school as well as Peter and Valentine are the best and brightest that future Earth has to offer, there are things to be discovered about them; and admired. Twelve year-old Peter says this after prompting his net idea to Valentine, "But we don't think like other children, do we, Val? We don't talk like other children. And above all, we don't write like other children." The emphasis on empowering young minds in this book is so heavy that it will make you rethink the way that you lived your childhood. Heck, it made me rethink the way I was living my life. The way that I process thoughts and information, the way that I judge authority and see leadership and power, the way that I go about completing menial everyday tasks like walking in the halls, have all been affected by reading this book. I now find myself pondering more important questions over a partiular subject matter, no matter how big or small. What is the purpose of this? Is it helping me achieve my goal in life? What are the more efficient or meticulous ways of doing what I am doing? Peter, who can tap into other peoples fears and use them against them, and Valentine, who can figure out what people love about themselves and flatter them, and Ender, who can look deep into somebody and understand them to the point of being able to control them, have all been great influences on my life. "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card has easily won the title of my favorite book. 10/10.

View the book's goodreads page here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/375802.Ender_s_Game


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