Ready Player One is a novel of 80s nostalgia and video game history.

A quick and easy read, Ready Player One is like an old school text game, but with more action and adventure. I feel like its the kind of novel my teenage son would love, though I doubt he would get most of the pop culture references. Which I guess is why the intended audience confuses me. I feel like its very much a YA adult novel, but I doubt anyone under 30 would get a lot of the pop culture references. Some of the references were pretty obvious even today, but some of them were also pretty obscure!

I found them at times to be amusing and nostalgic, but the sheer number of them started to get a bit too much at times. By the time I was 2/3 of the way through the novel I just felt like saying "ok I get it, this guy liked the 80s."

I feel like the author was trying to send a message through the novel, as in many ways the story reflected our society today with kids addicted to video games and how the internet currently fuctions. I feel at several times he was telling people they should get off their computers and go outside and breath the fresh air. However I think the depth of the story wasn't enough to really get the point across.

I did enjoy the novel for it was - a fun, easy to read adventure.