Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline is an American novelist, screenwriter, and self-proclaimed geek whose novels celebrating 1980s pop culture have become global bestsellers and major motion pictures. Born in Ashland, Ohio in 1972, Cline grew up in the 1980s immersed in the decade's video games, movies, music, and television — a deep cultural fluency that became the foundation of his fiction. He worked as a computer support technician and performed spoken word poetry before turning to novels. Ready Player One (2011) was a massive hit — a dystopian adventure set in a virtual reality world called the OASIS, where the key to winning an enormous fortune lies in knowledge of 1980s pop culture. The novel became a number one New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a major film directed by Steven Spielberg. Ready Player Two (2020) continues the story. Armada, his second novel, is a science fiction adventure about a teenager who discovers that an alien invasion mirrors his favourite video game. Cline writes for readers who grew up on Atari, Pac-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, and John Hughes films — his novels are love letters to geek culture wrapped in compelling adventure narratives. His appeal lies in the joy of recognition — the pleasure of encountering beloved cultural references woven into exciting stories. Not everyone shares the nostalgia, and his work has been both celebrated and critiqued for its reliance on pop culture references. But for his enormous readership, Cline captures something real about the power of the stories we grow up with. The audiobook editions of Cline's novels, narrated by Wil Wheaton, are hugely entertaining. His books and audiobooks are essential for fans of science fiction, gaming culture, and 1980s nostalgia.