Recommended Read #5: Ready Player One

Name of author: Eric Brown

Genre/type of author: Scientific Dystopia

It's the year 2044, and the world is a dystopic hell riven by starvation and disease. The impoverished populace spend their time in OASIS, which started as a multiplayer online game and has evolved into a global virtual reality. Wade Watts is one of these unfortunates, an endearingly nerdy and socially maladjusted youth who dreams of discovering the lottery ticket embedded, Willy Wonka-style, in OASIS by its billionaire tycoon creator: the winner will control the company and earn unlimited wealth. When Wade begins to unpick the clues, he's pitched into the real world where other gamers will resort to murder in order to snatch the prize. The strength of Cline's first novel, other than its geeky referencing of 1980s pop culture, is the characterisation of the Candide-like Wade and his redemptive quest in both VR and the real world.

Source: The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug/04/eric-brown-science-fiction-book-reviews