Ready Player One

Ready Player One I'm sure has great appeal to avid gamers of the 1980s, everything from Dungeons and Dragons to Pacman. I guess everybody has played a little Pacman, right? But I wasn't a gamer and don't even know anybody who was nearly as avid about 1980s video games as the characters in this book, except maybe it's author, but that really doesn't affect the reader's enjoyment. It's a fast paced fun read chock full of pop culture references. Even if you don't get them, many are explained in context, and they really don't get in the way of the story.

As an example, science fiction and fantasy authors mentioned in the book include:

• Anne McCaffrey
• Frank Herbert
• Philip Jose Farmer
• Larry Niven
• Douglas Adams
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Neal Stephenson
• Richard K. Morgan
• Stephen King
• Orson Scott Card
• Terry Pratchett
• Terry Brooks
• Ray Bradbury
• Joe Haldeman
• Robert Heinlein
• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Jack Vance
• William Gibson
• Neil Gaiman
• Bruce Sterling
• Michael Moorcock
• John Scalzi
• Roger Zelazny
• Cory Doctorow
• Philip K Dick

Ready Player One reminds me of Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It is teenage hackers thwarting the forces of evil, except that in Ready Player One, evil is in the form of an uber-corporation rather than government, and the story takes place three decades in the future, mostly in the virtual reality of a simulated universe game. Cory Doctorow is mentioned as an elected official in the virtual reality world, along with Wil Wheaton, who read the audiobook I heard.