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Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune. Cline sold the rights to publish the novel in June 2010, in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group (a division of Random House). The book was published on August 16, 2011. An audiobook was released the same day; it was narrated by Wil Wheaton, who was mentioned briefly in one of the chapters.Ch. 20 In 2012, the book received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association and won the 2011 Prometheus Award. A film adaptation, screenwritten by Cline and Zak Penn and directed by Steven Spielberg, was released on March 29, 2018. A sequel novel, Ready Player Two, was released on November 24, 2020, to a widely negative critical reception. Synopsis Setting In the 2040s, the world has been gripped by an energy crisis from the depletion of fossil fuels and the consequences of pollution, global warming and overpopulation, causing widespread social problems, poverty, and economic stagnation. To escape the decline their world is facing, people turn to the OASIS, a virtual universe accessible by players using visors and haptic technology such as gloves. It was originally designed as an MMORPG (and so still contains gameplay elements like powerful, unique artifacts), but has evolved into a virtual world used ubiquitously by humanity, with its currency being one of the most stable in the real world. The OASIS was created by James Donovan Halliday, founder of Gregarious Simulation Systems. When Halliday died, his will consisted of a video stating to the public that he had left an Easter egg inside the OASIS, and the first person to find it would inherit his entire fortune, ownership of his corporation, and complete control of the OASIS itself, which is worth trillions. To win the contest, a user must find three hidden keys, and use each one to unlock three hidden gates. Halliday's announcement leads to intense competition among "Gunters" (egg hunters) as well as Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a multinational corporation sponsoring a well-funded effort to find the Easter egg in order to take control of the OASIS and monetize it. However, when the novel begins, five years have passed since Halliday's death, and nobody has found any of the keys. Plot 18 year old Wade Watts lives with his aunt in Oklahoma City in the "stacks", a poverty-stricken district constructed of trailer homes piled on top of each other. He spends his spare time as a gunter, logging on to the OASIS as an avatar under the moniker Parzival, reading James Halliday's journal Anorak's Almanac, and researching details of the 1980s pop culture, mainly classic video games and movies that Halliday loved. After deciphering a riddle hidden in the Almanac, he realizes that the first key is located on Ludus, the same virtual world as his own online high school, in a re-creation of the Dungeons & Dragons module Tomb of Horrors. In the Tomb, Parzival defeats an AI Acererak at the video game Joust, and is awarded the Copper Key. His avatar's name appears on a public scoreboard, making him an instant celebrity. While leaving the tomb, he meets Art3mis, a famous female gunter and blogger (and his crush), who had independently discovered the location of the key, but had not yet beat Acererak. Parzival completes the Copper Gate's puzzles on the planet Middletown, which is modeled after Halliday's boyhood home. He plays through the Dungeons of Daggorath video game in a recreation of Halliday's parents' house and then role-plays Matthew Broderick's character in the film WarGames. Art3mis clears the gate shortly afterwards, as does Wade's best friend Aech. Wade's fame enables him to make a living by endorsing virtual products. It also brings him to the attention of Nolan Sorrento, head of operations at IOI. When Wade refuses to join IOI, Sorrento attempts to kill him by blowing up the trailer where Wade lives, killing his aunt and disguising the explosion as an accident. Wade, who hadn't been in his trailer at the time of the explosion, escapes and moves to Columbus, Ohio (hometown of both GSS and IOI), where he assumes the pseudonym Bryce Lynch and lives in an anonymous apartment designed for hardcore OASIS users. He grows increasingly close with Art3mis, but when he confesses his feelings towards her, she declares that their relationship had been a mistake and ghosts him. After five months, Art3mis finally finds the Jade Key. On Achaide, a planet containing a copy of every video game ever published, Parzival stumbles across a hidden recreation of an arcade from Halliday's hometown. He plays a perfect game of Pac-Man, thinking it part of the egg hunt, but receives only a quarter as a prize. Aech, after finding the Jade Key, provides a hint leading him to the planet Frobozz where he solves a recreation of the text adventure game Zork and whistles a 2600-hertz-sound through a Cap'n Crunch Bo'Sun whistle, awarding him the Jade Key. IOI establishes a base on Frobozz to farm Jade Keys for their company's avatars, unlocks the second Gate, and rapidly acquires the Crystal Key as well. Shoto, another high ranking gunter, tells Parzival that members of the IOI have killed his partner Daito, passing it off as a suicide. Parzival finds the Jade Gate, hidden in a Voight-Kampff machine from Blade Runner, and completes the arcade game Black Tiger. He is awarded a giant, usable mecha as a prize and is given a clue to the Crystal Key: a red star in a circle. He acquires the Crystal Key on planet Syrinx, and after playing the "Discovery" section of the song "2112", finds a hidden secondary clue regarding the conditions to unlock the final gate. As Parzival messages Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto with instructions on how to get through the Jade Gate and obtain the Crystal Key, IOI finds the Crystal Gate in Halliday's private stronghold, Castle Anorak on the planet Chthonia. They use a powerful artifact to create an indestructible force field around the gate, but since they didn't find the hidden clue that Wade did, cannot determine how to open the gate. Wade manipulates his assumed identity in order to be arrested and placed in indentured servitude in IOI's tech support department. He then uses black market passwords and security exploits to hack into IOI's intranet and deploy a booby trap to bring down the force field. He also acquires a wealth of incriminating information: footage of Daito's murder, records of the attempt on his own life, as well as plans to abduct Shoto and Art3mis and force them to find the Easter egg for IOI, then kill them afterwards. After escaping the corporation, he shares this information with his friends and news outlets, and sends out.... Discover the Kristie Cook popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Kristie Cook books.