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81c36cf
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I stopped moving forward and the sound of hoofbeats also ceased, but not until a few seconds later. I turned around and saw the source of the sound. It wasn't a horse. It was a man banging two coconut halves together.
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Ernest Cline |
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8f4056b
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stood there stalling for a few more minutes, then forced myself to walk over to Smallberries, our second enormous sales PC.
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Ernest Cline |
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968e38c
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wondering what challenges awaited me inside
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Ernest Cline |
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c0fa281
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Dancing games.
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Ernest Cline |
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572ddb8
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Says you, assface. It has some great moments." "No," I said, shaking my head. "It doesn't. It's even worse than that first Ewok flick, Caravan of Courage. They shoulda called it Caravan of Suck."
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Ernest Cline |
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59f1170
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And in addition to the credits, my avatar received an equal number of experience points for obtaining the coins.
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Ernest Cline |
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1acc7a5
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It looks just like Rivendell," Aech said, taking the words right out of my mouth."
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Ernest Cline |
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53cb431
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Kurt Vonnegut. Neal Stephenson. Richard K. Morgan. Stephen King. Orson Scott Card. Terry Pratchett. Terry Brooks. Bester, Bradbury, Haldeman, Heinlein, Tolkien, Vance, Gibson, Gaiman, Sterling, Moorcock, Scalzi, Zelazny.
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Ernest Cline |
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d221556
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Most users chose to run a "voyeur channel," which was like being the star of your own twenty-four-hour reality show. Hovering virtual cameras would follow your avatar around the OASIS as you went about your day-to-day activities."
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Ernest Cline |
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be1400d
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Now everyone could be on TV, every second of every day, whether or not anyone was watching.
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Ernest Cline |
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2044de0
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One artificially intelligent supercomputer pretending to be a hostile alien race for the purpose of testing humanity's character?
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Ernest Cline |
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52c5990
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now had a cure for all forms of cancer, which had eradicated the disease in a matter of weeks.
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Ernest Cline |
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f0a6eb1
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The same goes for Marie Curie. Before she discovered radium, you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe.
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Ernest Cline |
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7d30890
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Parzival: Farewell, Art3mis. Sweet dreams.
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Ernest Cline |
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07d59d3
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Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable.
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Ernest Cline |
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feb1113
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hikikomori,
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Ernest Cline |
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a014225
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Neal Stephenson.
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Ernest Cline |
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2495818
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Li, sotto le cupe luci fluorescenti del mio minuscolo monolocale, non c'era modo di sfuggire alla verita. Nella vita reale, non ero altro che un eremita asociale. Un recluso. Un nerd con una carnagione cadaverica e un'ossessione per la cultura pop. Ero soltanto un'altra anima perduta, triste, solitaria, che sprecava la sua vita su un videogioco osannato da tutti.
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Ernest Cline |
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c3bda13
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Pink Floyd.
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Ernest Cline |
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115c880
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My God, it's full of stars," I heard a disembodied voice say. I recognized it as a sound bite from the film 2010."
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Ernest Cline |
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e8b86bb
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The vast wasteland of television programming had finally reached its zenith, and the average person was no longer limited to fifteen minutes of fame.
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Ernest Cline |
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27d151c
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containing a single person strapped into a high-end
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Ernest Cline |
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71d1656
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drbrh byrwn rftn zydy shlwGsh khrdh nd.
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Ernest Cline |
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00af8a8
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wqty tmm dnyyt tbdyl bh tplh my shwd w tnh khsy khh bry khtlT pyd my khny,nrm fzr systm `ml tjhyztt my shwd, my fhmy khh ykh tnh bh tmm zndgyt gnd zdh y.
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Ernest Cline |
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52e6c9c
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I fired a last volley of plasma bolts at the unprotected enemy ship, which was already vibrating from the buildup of power in its reactor core, and held my breath as they streaked toward it, silently praying to Crom that they would reach the Glaive and destroy it before it finished transforming itself into a weapon of mass destruction.
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Ernest Cline |
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74b1270
|
Og led us through the mansion's lavish front entrance. The lights were off inside, but instead of turning them on, Morrow took an honest-to-God torch off the wall and used it to illuminate our way.
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Ernest Cline |
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7adcaf5
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I noticed that Halliday had added an old eight-track tape player to the cockpit control panel. There was also a rack of eight-track tapes mounted over my right shoulder. I grabbed one and slapped it into the deck. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by AC/DC began to blast out of the robot's internal and external speakers, so loud it made my chair vibrate.
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Ernest Cline |
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b71ed21
|
You could shove it up your ass and pretend you're a corn dog." COURTESY VIOLATION--RESPONSE MUTED--VIOLATION LOGGED." --
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Ernest Cline |
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8efee8d
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My mom once told me that my dad had given me an alliterative name, Wade Watts, because he thought it sounded like the secret identity of a superhero.
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Ernest Cline |
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01b9a38
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She did it to get the extra food vouchers from the government every month. Most of the time, I had to find food on my own.
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Ernest Cline |
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e0b8f22
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The Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation was a big place.
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Ernest Cline |
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21845a0
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a gifted human player could always triumph over the game's AI, because software couldn't improvise. It could either react randomly, or in a limited number of predetermined ways, based on a finite number of preprogrammed conditions. This was an axiom in videogames, and would be until humans invented true artificial intelligence.
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Ernest Cline |
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f07f894
|
It used harmless low-powered lasers to draw the stunningly real environment of the OASIS right onto its wearer's retinas, completely immersing their entire field of vision in the online world. The visor was light-years ahead of the clunky virtual-reality goggles available prior to that time,
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Ernest Cline |
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3288514
|
rolling around in broken glass in my birthday suit.
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Ernest Cline |
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1e663d9
|
Our records also show that you are currently unemployed and have therefore been classified as impecunious. Under current federal law, you are now eligible for mandatory indenturement.
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Ernest Cline |
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0ba82d5
|
Busted," I said, raising my hands in a gesture of guilt. "That's what you get"
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Ernest Cline |
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b210c30
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Art3mis
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Ernest Cline |
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123c703
|
IOI (pronounced eye-oh-eye)
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Ernest Cline |
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12f3443
|
G.I. Joe--I knew them all. Because knowing is half the battle.
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Ernest Cline |
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175c87c
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Revenge is a dish best served cold.
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Ernest Cline |
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ddd2289
|
I thought. You're going to turn it into a fascist corporate theme park
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Ernest Cline |
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b2703db
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was very special. It was impossible not to fall in love with her." He smiled at me. "You know what it's like to meet someone like that, don't you?"
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Ernest Cline |
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b702301
|
Finally, after it felt like we'd been crawling along the highway for months, the Columbus skyline appeared on the horizon, glittering like Oz at the end of the yellow brick road.
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Ernest Cline |
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5c75522
|
Like most gunters, I voted to reelect Cory Doctorow and Wil Wheaton (again).
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Ernest Cline |