In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he?s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.
When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune ? and control of the OASIS itself.
Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he?s beset by rivals who?ll kill to take this prize. The race is on ? and the only way to survive is to win.