Ernest Cline's novel, "Ready Player One", is a sci-fi novel that takes place in the future and it explores the development of technology and how that would affect people's lives: 

The world in 2045 is not a fun place to be, so that's why so many people spend the majority of their time in a virtual dystopia known as the "OASIS". This haven was created by a recently deceased person, James Halliday, formerly the richest man on Earth. Because he didn't have any heirs, he decided to make an “easter egg hunt” with a grand prize of an egg that contained his entire fortune. For years and years, people have scoured the OASIS trying to find the first clue, but nobody found anything so everyone assumed that it was impossible or that Halliday's egg didn't actually exist.

This is where the protagonist and teenager Wade Watts comes in. He is the first one to stumble upon the key in the OASIS, which thrusts him into the spotlight and he instantly becomes a celebrity, but also a target of hungry, power-craving organizations. It is a life-and-death race to see who is able to figure out the clues leading to Halliday's fortune, and Wade needs to dig in and find it first before he and others are harmed or even killed in real life.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot because it explores something that our world could potentially turn into–where reality is such a terrible place that people will retreat to this online dystopia and spend the majority of their life there. The author's interpretation on how technology will affect us in the future is really interesting–it is bittersweet that the OASIS is such a nice place with such good intentions when it was made but now it is just worsening and pushing away people's real-life problems. This is especially prominent when the egg hunters are searching for the egg, as there is really no limit to how low people will stoop to get what they want. Also, for the gamers and movie fanatics, there are so many references of games and movies throughout history and little easter eggs hidden in the story for you to enjoy and learn about. Overall, this author's words provide a colourful, vivid, and adventurous story that will keep you up all night!

If you enjoyed this novel, you will also love “The Game of Lives” by James Dashner. It explores similar concepts and also has a grippingly suspenseful and powerful plot.