If prerelease literary hype were an arcade game, Ernest Cline would be entering his initials next to the new high score. His first novel, the sci-fi thriller Ready Player One, sold for six figures last year, and its film rights were snapped up the next day. Amazon and Publishers Weekly have raved; Mark Frauenfelder of the influential alt-culture site Boing Boing called it "the best science fiction novel I've read in a decade."
Though Cline's book is a debut, the buzz around it is acutely nostalgic, not unlike the sound of a misinserted Atari cartridge. As its title suggests, Ready Player...