Books Similar to Ready Player One
Ready Player One is a science fiction novel, set in a dystopian world in the year 2045. The plot revolves around Wade Watts, who sets out to find Easter eggs hidden in worldwide virtual reality games. These eggs will lead him to a fortune created by the creator of the games.
Ender’s Game
Both Ready Player One and Ender’s Game deal with themes that are timeless, while also being quite contemporary. Set in a future war-torn world, Ender’s Game centers on a young man who is recruited to command a fleet of ships and face an alien race. His skills include empathy and the ability to uncover weaknesses in his enemies. In the process, he learns how the simulations he plays in video games can have real consequences.
Ready Player One has a dystopian future. Ender’s Game is a dystopian novel set in the future, where humans live in a world that has been invaded by a mysterious enemy called the “buggers.” It follows an alternate reality, where humans are fighting aliens and surviving is impossible. Both books focus on the challenges of survival, and both are highly recommended reading.
Gnomon
If you’ve read Ready Player One, you’ve probably noticed that it is a dystopian future where people are no longer bound to their body, but instead live on a virtual plane. While the storyline and setting are reminiscent of that book, Gnomon is much more ambitious. It reads like a literary telephone game between Arthur Conan Doyle and Philip K. Dick, as well as William Gibson and William Conan Doyle. It begins simple, a pastiche of Inception and Dick’s paranoid fascist imaginings, but quickly veers off into more complex territory.
If you like Ready Player One and want to experience something similar, Gnomon is a great book to read. Gnomon is a dystopian novel that takes place in the future and is equal parts gripping detective story, dark comedy, and mind-bending philosophical puzzle. You’ll likely want to read more books in this genre.
Off to Be the Wizard
Off to Be the Wizard is a time-travel fantasy novel that has all the hallmarks of a classic fantasy. The plot follows three teenagers who live in different eras and face various challenges. Martin Banks, a 23-year-old data entry worker, spends his free time snooping around the corporate file servers. One day, he stumbles upon a large file that contains the secrets of time travel. He begins editing it, and discovers that he can change his world! Initially, he accidentally increases his height by three inches, but learns how to use geospatial coordinates to teleport, change his time and place, and become rich by editing his bank account balance.
Snow Crash
Like Ready Player One, Snow Crash has a narrator who addresses the reader directly. Both books have a cyberpunk theme, with connections to video games, and both feature a badass female protagonist. However, there are some differences between the two books.
The first is that both books are aimed at teenagers. While Ready Player One is set in the future, Snow Crash is based in the present. The plot follows the lives of four teenagers in a high-tech version of Cape Town. The protagonists are Kendra, an art-school dropout, Lerato, an ambitious AIDS baby, and Tendeka, a fiery activist. The third book in the series follows the protagonists, as they discover that video games are more than they seem.
While Ready Player One was very popular, Snow Crash is an even better book. It’s set in a dystopian society, in this case Cape Town, South Africa. In this dystopia, reality games control everything, including people. In the book, Hiro, a pizza delivery boy, is also a prince in a video game. His brain is damaged after viewing a virus image.
The Magicians
If you’re looking for a book that’s both realistic and fantasy, you’ll love The Magicians by C.S. Grossman. The three books in this trilogy bump psychological realism against great fantasy. The characters are flawed, but their problems and flaws make the books an excellent page-turner.
Ready Player One’s magical world was very small, but The Magicians expands it. Readers are introduced to magical places that aren’t on Earth, such as the Fillory or the Neitherlands. Julia, the protagonist, gets to explore the world of hedge witches, which are considered dangerous and offered safety nets by Brakebills. Without them, however, they don’t get very far in the magical world.
If you’re looking for books similar to Ready Player One, you may want to check out The Magicians by C.S. Chang. This sci-fi novel is also about an alien species that wants to make contact with humanity. They hire a Hollywood agent, Thomas Stein, to help them. While the novel contains allusions to ’80s pop culture, it also centers on a sweet tale of love and friendship.
