I'm of two minds about this book. On the one hand, it is so utterly silly, and I really don't think that videogames from my childhood are something requiring or producing anything very deep. That's me. I played adventure on Atari too, but at times the writing is as juvenile as I was at ten, and that doesn't make me feel nostalgic, it just makes me feel like I'm reading a kid's book. On the other hand, this is a really entertaining page turner--maybe one of the most un-put-downable things I've read in years. So on some level, the story overcomes the silliness. The blurb on the cover says "a grown up Harry Potter" or something like that, and that strikes me as very true for both good reasons and bad. Ready Player One is a book written for geeks. This is both it's primary strength, and one of it's largest weaknesses as a greater narrative. Cline has packed this tale densely with pop-culture references, and they rarely feel forced-- clearly written by someone who has a great love for the culture the story is based upon. You really believe the knowledge behind the book, and that gives it some degree of verisimilitude. Where it often fails, and I often found myself cringing, was in the interactions between the characters. The dialogue is banal at points, and sometimes feels forced. It's not bad all the time, but there are long swaths of dialogue that don't feel necessary in the book, leaving the reader to wonder when the story will begin again. I enjoyed the story immensely, but even as geeky as I am, I felt the need to look up some of the references quite a few times, mostly because they were not adequately described in the narrative. Cline leaves a lot up to the reader's imagination, counting on his readership understanding his references, like Halliday does in the book. The world is, because of the plot and setting, pastiche of 80's pop-culture and trivia. In the end, I devoured this book, but I can understand why someone wouldn't like it. It is written for a niche audience, and I happen to fit that niche. It's not quite the "Hot Fuzz" of it's genre, but it's certainly a blast to read.
