With the progressive dependence on what computers and electronics do for us — in business, recreational and social interactive aspects — the novel I read this week came across as bone-shiveringly plausible.

What if the world became so unbearable, so poverty-stricken, emotionally numb and inhumane — or inhuman — that almost the entire population decides to give up on it and embrace a completely fabricated virtual world instead?

Can the virtues that make us decent human beings continue to exist in a pixilated paradise?

Ernest Cline's bestselling novel, "Ready Player One," explores the thread-thin line between what we would ideally envision ourselves to be, and what we truly are — and which of those self-images is the stronger one.

In the book, by the year 2044 the OASIS, an interactive online realm that is a gateway into any and every fantasy imaginable, has become most people's substitution for the real world. Meanwhile, the real world is deteriorating quickly into utter ruin.

Wade Watts, as with most teenagers, is obsessed with the OASIS and its founder, Jim Halliday, the ultimate guru on all pop culture from the 1980s.

When Halliday passes away, he leaves a recording that he will give his $274 billion fortune to whichever gamer in the OASIS can discover his "Easter egg" by locating three keys and their hidden gates. Someone such as Wade, who has practically lived and breathed all of Halliday's documented knowledge, stands the best chance of winning, right?

Well, throw in the billions of other players from all around the world vying for the keys, plus the team of hired specialists known as Sixers — whose only goal is to help Sorrento, the current director of Halliday's gaming company — and all are willing to kill either avatar or flesh-and-blood person to eliminate the competition.

Wade is soon fighting for his life, as well as for his new friends Art3mis and Aech who he only knows in the OASIS world, but are the only people he has ever truly cared for.

While this novel would probably be most appreciated by either avid online gamers or readers who grew up during the 1980s, there is much to enjoy.

Each character was written with a unique and engaging voice, particularly Wade. He may be the quintessential geek, but he is easy to identify with.

His obsession, or desperation, to exist in the online world and shrug off reality may seem sadly severe, but it illustrates how lost and alone we all feel at times. And how intoxicating it can be to live out a fantasy, even if only in a virtual sense.

The digital world becomes the ultimate escape and protection, until it crosses over into our real lives. Then we have to choose whether to rise to the challenges that real life presents us, or wither away into the dreamland with a foundation built out of intangible code.

"Ready Player One" is an oddball adventure with plenty of humor and unexpected turns. Even if younger readers don't understand all of the allusions to the '80s, there are great characters, wildly imaginative scenarios and fast-paced vibrancy to the storytelling to keep them constantly hooked.

For older readers, you will get a kick out of the odes to some of the most memorable movies, video games and moments of the bygone decade, and how those memories can still inspire us even in a less-than-perfect future.

Alison Reeger Cook is a Gainesville resident whose Off the Shelves book review appears every other week in Sunday Life. Know of a good book to review? Email her to tell her about it. Her column appears biweekly and on gainesvilletimes.com/life