Bridge to Bat City

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But with people afraid of the bats and determined to get rid of them, it’ll take a whole lot of courage to prove that this is where the bats—and Opal—belong.

His first novel, Ready Player One, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, appeared on numerous “best of the year” lists, and is set to be adapted into a motion picture by Warner Bros.

Inspiration for the novel stemmed from Cline’s longtime residency in Austin, TX, which is home to the world’s largest urban bat colony. Cline followed up his debut novel with 2015's Armada, and a sequel, Ready Player Two, released in 2020. The book appears to mark something of a departure for Cline from the work in the sci-fi realm for which he’s best known.

This is a weird and wonderful “mostly true tall tale” about how a recently orphaned girl named Opal B Flats helped a family of displaced bats find a new home under the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas. Now he's stepping into his hometown's history for his debut children's novel, Bridge to Bat City, announced this morning.Set for publication in April 2024, the book is described as a “mostly true tall tale” about a recently orphaned young girl named Opal B Flats, who forms an unexpected friendship with a music-loving colony of bats and helps them find a new home against all odds.

But just as the farm is starting to feel like home, the bats' cave is destroyed by a big mining company with its sights set on the farmland next. There, Opal bonds with Uncle Roscoe over music and befriends a group of orphaned, music-loving bats. With his signature deep dives into nerdy pop culture futures, Ready Player One author Ernest Cline is one of Austin's biggest-selling authors. But with people afraid of the bats and determined to get rid of them, it’ll take a whole lot of courage to prove that this is where the bats — and Opal — belong. Yes, I was the editor of this book and perhaps biased, but I truly love this book and hope you love it as much as I do!After losing her mother, 13-year-old Opal moves in with her uncle Roscoe on the family farm, and it’s there that she befriends a group of orphaned bats.