In the year 2044, the real world has become a very unpleasant place to live. Like most people on the planet, Wade Watts escapes from his bleak everyday life by spending most of his hours connected to the OASIS - a widely popular virtual utopia that allows you to be whoever you want to be and live, play, and fall in love on one of the ten thousand planets it contains.

And like most people in the world, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the first clue hidden within this virtual world. Somewhere within this massive online playground, the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, has hidden a series of perplexing puzzles that will bestow an immense fortune - and great power - to whoever can solve them.

For years, millions of people have been trying unsuccessfully to conquer this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are rooted in the pop culture trivia of the late twentieth century, which he adored. And for years, millions of people have found in this quest another means of escape from reality, immersed in the entertaining yet addictive study of Halliday's favorite heroes. Like many of his peers, Wade feels just as comfortable discussing the work of director John Hughes, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he does desperately searching for energy to power up his personal immersion rig in the OASIS.

At some point, Wade stumbles upon the solution to the first puzzle. Suddenly, all eyes in the world are on him, but among the thousands of competitors participating in the hunt, there are some very powerful and determined players who are willing to kill to defeat Wade and secure the prize.

Now, the only way for him to survive and save everyone he knows is to win. However, to succeed, he may have to leave behind his seemingly perfect virtual existence and face life - and love - in the real world, from which he has always desperately wanted to escape...

Original and nostalgic, "Ready Player One" ambitiously combines a coming-of-age novel, a love story, and an epic of virtual reality.