Ready Player One

Right away, wildly original and packed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-bending, ambitious, charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed. It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket hidden within this virtual world. Somewhere inside this vast networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based on the pop culture he loved—the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another way to escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s work, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

Then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been desperate to escape.

[Russian description included in the source text:]
A quest novel, a novel—love story, a novel—virtual space opera set in a universe where magicians fight giant Japanese robots, entire planets are modeled after Blade Runner, and DeLoreans fly at light speed. It’s 2044. Reality is ugly. Like almost all of humanity, Wade Watts escapes grim days by immersing himself in the sprawling virtual utopia OASIS where you can be anyone and live, play, and love on any of the tens of thousands of planets. Like everyone else, Wade dreams of finding the best lottery ticket in the world: somewhere in the OASIS its creator James Halliday has hidden a set of fiendishly difficult puzzles, and whoever solves them will gain a fortune as well as power over the virtual world. For years, millions have tried in vain to find Halliday’s puzzles, known only to be based on the pop culture of the late twentieth century he loved. Millions obsessively study that culture, and Wade is no exception: he passionately discusses John Hughes’s masterpieces with friends, plays Pac-Man, and quotes Devo’s songs.

One day, Wade comes across the first puzzle. His name becomes known to the whole world, and thousands of competitors rush to compete with the hero for the solution and deprive him of the prize—even at the price of real murder. To win, Wade is forced to leave behind his comfortable virtual existence and move into the real world where real life and real love await him.