Published in 2011 by the American novelist and screenwriter Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is a science fiction and dystopian novel. Drawing heavily from American culture in the 1980s, Ready Player One presents a near-future dystopia where an internet-like virtual simulation called the OASIS has become an integral part of society, with the simulation functioning as a realistic, virtual society. The protagonist, Wade, is set on finding three keys left behind by the deceased creator of OASIS, James Donovan Halliday, to gain access to Halliday's vast fortune in the real world. The novel satirizes modern society and culture and gives a chilling image of what the world could become as we withdraw further and further into our technologies to escape an increasingly depressing reality. The story is, at its core, a coming-of-age story, as Wade and his friends confront the evil embodied by the company IOI.
