Ready Player One

Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel and the debut of American author Ernest Cline. Set in a dystopian 2045, the real world is ravaged by climate change, energy crises, and economic collapse. Most of humanity escapes into the OASIS, a vast virtual reality universe created by the reclusive genius James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he leaves behind a hidden Easter egg—a digital treasure hunt that promises his entire fortune and control of the OASIS to the first person to find it.

The story follows Wade Watts, a teenage orphan living in a trailer stack in Oklahoma City. As a gunter (egg hunter), he becomes the first to solve the initial clue after five years of global searching. This thrusts him into a high-stakes race against thousands of other gunters and the nefarious corporate entity Innovative Online Industries (IOI), which aims to win the contest to commercialize the OASIS. Wade must decode Halliday's riddles based on classic 1980s video games, movies, and music, forming alliances with fellow gunters Art3mis, Aech, Shoto, and Daito along the way.

The novel blends cyberpunk, dystopian fiction, and LitRPG, exploring themes of escapism versus reality, the value of pop culture as cultural capital, and the struggle between corporate greed and individual passion. It was published on August 16, 2011, by Crown Publishing Group after a high-profile bidding war. The audiobook, narrated by Wil Wheaton, is widely acclaimed and won the 2012 Audie Award for Science Fiction. The book spent over 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, sold over 3 million copies worldwide, and has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Critical reception was generally positive, with praise for its imaginative concept and fast-paced plotting, though some critics noted thin character development and an over-reliance on nostalgia. The novel won the 2012 Alex Award and the 2011 Prometheus Award. A film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg was released in 2018, grossing over $582 million worldwide. A sequel, Ready Player Two, was published in 2020 to largely negative reviews.[edit]