And it’s none other than Steven Speilberg, who has become a sci-fi-slash-nerd maestro in his own right over the past 50(!!) years.

“Ready Player One,” penned by actor-writer-slam poet Ernest “Ernie” Cline (Fanboys), was published back in August 2011 and takes place in the “not-so-distant future.”

According to the book description on Amazon:

[T]he world has turned into a very bleak place, but luckily there is OASIS, a virtual reality world that is a vast online utopia. People can plug into OASIS to play, go to school, earn money, and even meet other people…and for protagonist Wade Watts it certainly beats passing the time in his grim, poverty-stricken real life. Along with millions of other world-wide citizens, Wade dreams of finding three keys left behind by James Halliday, the now-deceased creator of OASIS and the richest man to have ever lived. The keys are rumored to be hidden inside OASIS, and whoever finds them will inherit Halliday’s fortune. But Halliday has not made it easy. And there are real dangers in this virtual world.

Based on over 5,000 customer reviews, the novel has a 4.5-star rating and was a New York Times bestseller. Cline’s second book, “Armada,” drops July 14, 2015.

[via Ain’t It Cool]