If you’re not a science fiction fan you might have missed the news that Ready Player One was one of the biggest literary hits of the year when it came out in 2011. First-time novelist Ernest Cline became an improbable success story when his book about a Tom Sawyer-like character sticking it to the corporation in a dystopian future reached No. 20 on the New York Times bestseller list. But maybe the book’s success is no more improbable than Rush’s success, since the book is threaded throughout with wry Rush references.

Cline

The story takes place in the not-too distant future and it’s not a pretty picture. The environment’s a mess and the social order is collapsing. But there’s one good thing: virtual reality. For many people, the real living takes place online in a highly immersive massively multiplayer game.

Without getting too much into the details, think of the…