Great Reads for Gamers - Books, Movies, & More

Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline

Immersing himself in a mid-21st-century technological virtual utopia to escape an ugly real world of famine, poverty and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world's super-wealthy creator, who has promised that the winner will be his heir.

In Real Life
by Cory Doctorow

Immersing herself in an online role-playing game where she enjoys fantasy heroics, Anda confronts a difficult choice when she befriends a disadvantaged Chinese kid who works illegally to collect valuable objects and sell them to other players for real money.

Omnitopia Dawn
by Diane Duane

Dev Logan, the genius programmer responsible for a popular, massive multiplayer online game, Omnitopia, guards a secret about his invention--it's not just a piece of code, it's alive--in this tale from the New York Times best-selling author.

The Leveller
by Julia Durango

Earning money by dragging kids out of the virtual reality gaming world and returning them to their worried parents, bounty hunter Nixy faces the biggest challenge of her career when the game's billionaire developer loses track of his own son.

Zendegi
by Greg Egan

In a near-future world, a scientist develops artiticial intelligences called proxies who mingle with humans in the virtual world of Zendegi, and after a journalist finds out he might not live long enough to raise his son, he becomes obsessed with findinga way to make a proxy of himself to take care of his son

You : A Novel
by Austin Grossman

After joining a revolutionary video game company run by his once-closest friends and a team of eccentric nerds, Russell discovers a software bug that leads him to uncover a mystery stretching back twenty years in this new novel from the author of Soon I Will be Invincible.

Virtually Dead
by Peter May

To help cope with his wife's death, Michael joins group therapy in a virtual world where members create identities based on avatars, but he becomes a target while investigating avatar murders that start to match real-life murders

Scott Pilgrim : Precious Little Life
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Scott Pilgrim's fantastic life takes an unforseen turn when rollerblading delivery girl Ramano Flowers makes her appearance

The Demi-Monde
by Rod Rees

The Demi-Monde, a computer-simulated military training world, begins bleeding into the real world when the U.S. president's daughter becomes trapped inside and enlists the assistance of a reluctant teenager to escape

Reamde
by Neal Stephenson

When his own high-tech startup turns into a Fortune 500 computer gaming group, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa family who has amassed an illegal fortune, finds the line between fantasy and reality becoming blurred when a virtual war for dominance is triggered.

Halting State
by Charles Stross

Sergeant Sue Smith is called in to investigate a daring Edinburgh robbery at a dot-com startup company, a crime perpetrated by a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow in the virtual reality land of Avalon Four, but she soon discovers that events in the virtual world could have a devastating impact on the real one, especially when an unknown enemy launches attacks on both.

Username: Evie
by Joe Sugg

A socially-isolated teenager, Evie often wishes she could escape from reality, but when her father creates a virtual world for her, she is forced to save it from descending into chaos

Heir Apparent
by Vivian Vande Velde

Trapped in the dangerous game of Heir Apparent, Giannine is forced to obtain a magic ring, find stolen treasure, solve the dwarf's stupid riddles, and slay a dragon--among other challenges--in order to survive.