Book Review: Ready Player One

I recommend reading this book before the movie. There's no way the movie will be able to replicate the immersive effect of having at least a dozen 80s-geek references on every single page, flying at you like the robot attackers in Robotron. I know the field well enough that the cultural lodestone that this duplicates -- the original video game Easter Egg in the Adventure game on the Atari 2600 -- is something that's always fascinated me, and this is that lodestone in book-quest form. So it's as fun as a ride on Space Mountain and about as meaningful. The book seems to recognize its own hollowness at several points, where it almost gets really interesting, but then the ride starts up again. Those are just points where the roller coaster gets pulled up a secondary lift and nothing more. So don't look for meaning here, but just have fun with it, and learn a little about the games and TV and movies you missed from the 80s. It leaves me feeling like I ate some upper-notch fast food. I knew what I was in for when I started, and at least it delivers on that.