Today, technology plays an ever increasing role in society. With new advancements in virtual and augmented reality emerging frequently and our constant preference to the “online world,” Ernest Cline was inspired to write Ready Player One, a novel that chronicles the adventures of Wade Watts in the virtual utopia known as OASIS. Set in the year 2044, with a dystopian suffering from an energy crisis and extreme poverty across the world, Wade Watts prefers to live his life in the OASIS, where he receives his education and interacts with his few friends.

In the wake of the death of James Halliday, the creator of the OASIS, a video announces that Halliday’s entire fortune, valued in excess of two hundred and forty billion dollars, is the object of a virtual treasure hunt. Halliday explains in the video, “I created my own Easter egg, and hid it somewhere inside my most popular videogame—the OASIS. The first person to find my Easter egg will inherit my entire fortune.” An “Easter egg” is a hidden message or image, an inside joke, or a secret feature of a work (such as a computer program or, in this case, a video game). Halliday reveals that he got the idea from the Atari video game Adventure that revealed the words “Created by Warren Robinett” in a secret room. The competition requires the participants to find three keys which will ultimately lead him/her to the location of the Easter egg.

To help those who wished to partake in the competition, Halliday left a clue that would push them in the right direction. In the weeks following Halliday’s death, the “Hunt”, as the competition came to be regarded, completely dominates the global culture. Halliday’s love for the ’80s was evidenced by Anorak’s Almanac, a collection of hundreds of Halliday’s undated journal entries, all of which seemed to focus on ’80s pop culture. Subsequently, people began to study everything that occurred during that era in hopes of finding a clue. Fifty years after the end of the decade, young adults began to adopt the classic features of the ’80s. The older generations witnessed the grandchildren become obsessed with the same songs, artists, clothes, and games that they once loved. However, weeks and months pass with no progress made in the competition. By 2044, five years had passed since Halliday’s death and the start of the competition. Most people lost interest in the competition and began to doubt the existence of the famed Easter egg. Wade Watts refused to give up, and, on February 11, 2044, he discovered the first key.

Wade Watts lives in his aunt’s “house,” which in reality is one of many mobile homes that formed a stack, in a poverty-stricken area that surrounds Oklahoma City. He escapes the pain he encounters in his real life by living through his online persona. In the OASIS, he is an entirely different person. No one in the OASIS knows the unfortunate circumstances that characterize Wade’s life. Indeed, in this virtual reality, he is known as Parzival, the Arthurian knight from the Holy Grail. From the beginning of Halliday’s competition, Wade hopes to escape his poverty by winning the competition. To accomplish this goal, Wade studies everything about the 1980’s. Indeed, after five years, he learns nearly everything mentioned in Anorak’s Almanac. After five years of searching, Wade finally makes progress. While in Latin class (in a virtual school) one day, Wade Watts realizes the location of the key. By the end of the day, he has the first key in his possession.

Throughout the novel, in addition to competing for the Easter egg, especially against the perfidious IOI corporation, Wade must also confront the real world that he has always wanted to desperately escape.

Ready Player One combines the pop culture of the 1980’s with a futuristic setting of a world with advanced technology (also an energy crisis, economic instability, and environmental problems for that matter). With a film adaption being released later this year in March, I highly recommend reading this novel.