Saturday 9 June 2012

Giveaway! 'Ready Player One' (Ernest Cline)

I started reading 'Ready Player One' a couple of days ago and it is awesome. Why didn't I listen to all those people who were telling me to read it a year ago...? Oh well, better late than never I guess :o) I'm aiming for a review next week, keep an eye out for it if you want to hear me saying nothing but nice things. If you haven't already read 'Ready Player One' don't leave it longer than I did, get on it right away and thank me later.

Which kind of leads me to the point of this post :o) To mark the US paperback release of 'Ready Player One' I have one copy to give away to one lucky reader here. In a welcome break from the norm, this competition is open to people living in the US and UK. That opens things up a bit :o)

For those of you who haven't read the book yet, here's some blurb...

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.  

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to
win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

Are you in? If you are then entering is as easy as ever. Just drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be 'Ready Player One'.

I'll let this one run until the 17th of June and will aim to announce the winner as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

4 comments:

Stuart said...

Its a Great book.

Looks like Ernest Cline is running a comp, there is a hidden Eater Egg in the book itself, he is giving away a Deloren:

http://www.readyplayerone.com/post/24472055062/ernie-announced-some-big-news-today-over-at-boing

Gav Reads said...

Hijacking this a little - sorry Graeme - Ernest with a little luck is going to be podcast guest on The Readers Summer Book Club on the 25th of June. I can't wait to speak to him. I'm listening to Will Wheaton read the audiobook. He's great at it!

Unknown said...

Count me in! Email coming soon :) I've heard nothing but amazing things about RP1, and with the news about the Ernie Cline DeLorean Challenge I want in!

Wendy Lam said...

YAY! Thank you so much Graeme for this giveaway! I can't believe I won and in perfect timing too for my holiday to Thailand on the 25th June. It will be the perfect combination to really get into the book in a new place, reading about a new world. I just hope it arrives this week if not I'm sure it would help solve my holiday blue of coming back to London having something to read =). Once again many thanks for this competition and your generosity!