Kawaljit Singh Bedi and Aqiul Colombowala join host Pranay Parab to talk about Ready Player One, a science fiction novel written by Ernest Cline. SPOILERS galore ahead.

• Audiobook experience
  • Will Wheaton’s narration
• Oasis, the all-encompassing VR game
  • Living in the stacks
  • Privacy
  • Omnipresent Internet access
• Wall of text early in the book
• Characters
  • James Halliday’s countless favourite games, books, TV shows
  • IOI and pantomime villains
  • Gunters vs. Sixers
  • High Fives
  • Sixers and a lack of subtlety
• Key #1
  • Ludus
  • Tomb of Horrors
  • Irok
  • Zork (play online)
  • MAME - emulator to play these games
  • Joust (play online)
  • ZX Spectrum
  • Lack of Nintendo references
  • IP nightmare
  • Age of Empires
  • Black Tiger (play online)
  • WarGames
  • FlickSync
  • Problem with accents
• Key #2
  • Love story
  • How do roads still work
  • Paranoid character
  • Social isolation
  • Artemis’ online persona, strong character
  • Other female character in the book
  • Gender neutral character
• Key #3
  • Castle Anorak
  • How to hack IOI
  • Events outside Oasis
  • L33t Hax0rz Warezhaus
  • Fear of death in the outside world
  • Massive battle
  • The role of eBay artifacts
  • Unnecessary explanations
  • Ending
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ending scene
• Expectations from the Ready Player One movie
• Shelf life of the novel

Music: Popular Potpourri and Path Complete from PPPPPP by Magnus “Souleye” Pålsson.