Oh, Ready Player One. Such conflicted feelings I have about you. (Warning: this is going to be a long review, and although I will try my best to keep it spoiler free, I might reference sections of the book in vague, non descriptive terms) 
 This book was recommended to me by multiple people, all of whom raved about it. As someone who actively enjoys and participates in nerd culture, it seemed like an amazing conglomeration of 80s nostalgia and gaming and pop culture references tied together in an original and compelling storyline. What wasn't there to like? I eagerly began listening to it (narration by Wil Wheaton was too good to pass up) and... I was left disappointed. 
 Let me firstly say, this is not a bad book by any means. It is a fairly competent book with an interesting plot and believable characters. But the execution of said plot is what disappointed me. 
 My first alarm that this book wasn't going to immediately land on my favorites self happened fairly early on, when our main character, Wade, monologues about the state of the world he now lives in and his overall disappointment in life. In this monologue the reader quickly learns that Wade sees little point of living in the real world. Due to the energy crisis of not so far off distant future, the economy of Earth is now in the toilet and people have no other purpose in living if they don't have distractions, be they drugs or other sources of entertainment. One of these such distractions is the immensely popular, virtual reality creating video game called OASIS. Now, this conceit is actually really interesting. The idea that reality is so unappealing that 99% of the population would rather live in a world created digitally, choosing to live their lives outside of the real world is an idea worth exploring. However, the world Cline creates is basically how our's is now, just with a worst economy. Wade's repulsive opinion of the world, the future, and the very essence of people leaved no room for hope. It seemed more of an angry and cynical author's diatribe towards the frivolity of man than set up for further character development. And although Wade's point of view alters slightly, it wasn't enough to warrant this amount of bitterness leveled at what was basically a slightly worst state of current affairs. 
 This leads to the 2nd issue I had with the book. Cline often times would hint at this very interesting themes to explore and questions to ask the reader. What is the importance of reality? What would happen to society if everyone abandoned the real world to live in this digital dream land of their own choosing and is that abandonment a moral and responsible action for people to take? Is there truly a difference between knowing a person through what they show you online or knowing a person through what they show you in person? What would happen to the outward self-esteem of people if they had complete control over their appearance in this fake reality? These are but some of the questions Cline briefly raises and then just doesn't go into. Now, he wasn't obligated to explore all of these themes, but when the original concept you create is so interesting it saddens me as the reader to get glimpses of what could elevate the book to the next intellectual level and then do nothing with them. 
 The final thing I was bothered by was the writing, particularly in how Cline chooses to introduce certain bits of information. This book has little to no tension, even in times when the villains are physically endangering our heroes. At the very beginning of the book, Wade declares that he wins the contest (that's not a spoiler as you read that within the first chapter). And if you take into consideration the monologue mentioned earlier where Wade explains his viewpoints on the afterlife (that there is none and humans have no purpose other than to live and then die and then nothing) it is to be assumed that he is not posthumously narrating this from beyond the grave. So whenever Wade's life would be threatened by our villains or he would seem to be in a hopeless situation that leads to his failure, I felt no fear for him. I knew nothing too drastic would happen because, well, he's telling me about it. This happened on a smaller scale as well. At one point he had already hacked a certain set of software and the book jumps back to when he's first trying to hack it. Cline tries to create tension over the consequences if Wade fails to hack the system. But... we already know he succeeds because right before we had the flashback, we SAW him already hacked into the system. I'm not saying the reader needs to be completely in the dark about the outcomes of the book but if we know basically all of the outcomes before you explain what lead to them, we are never concerned about the well being of our heroes. 
 But like I said, this book wasn't necessarily bad. Cline does do some things incredibly well. I thought that the 80s reference that permeate this book were handled quite well. He didn't hand hold the reader through each little thing, assuming that his audience was already familiar with most of the content he is referencing. I will admit that as someone who's not an 80s expert, I didn't know about everything he referenced, but the more obscure references didn't necessarily effect the plot. If you know what Lady Hawk is then you probably smiled in nostalgic glee, but you didn't have to know it to follow the plot. The plot itself if well thought out and extremely creative. I just wish that he would have delivered it in a more thoughtful manner. 
 In conclusion, I would recommend this book to my fellow nerds. If the writing style and information delivery system doesn't bother you, more power to you. I would just not go into this expecting it to be the literary pinnacle of nerd culture like I did.