Despite hating video games and not being a big sci-fi fan, I found this book to be quite enjoyable. I'm giving it 4 stars even though I've given greater works of literature only 3. Expectations can make all the difference in enjoyment. With this book I didn't expect anything deep, artistic or literary and therefore was able to thoroughly enjoy it as the quick fun read it was intended to be. 
 The story is about some geeky kids who have an all-consuming passion for a virtual reality gaming system called the OASIS and a contest to win the the immense fortune of its' creator, James Halliday. The key to the contest is finding an Easter egg in his system, which one can only hope to find by immersing themselves in the 80's pop culture Halliday was obsessed with. Apart from getting rich, everyone is also desperate to keep the fortune and the control of the OASIS away from an evil corporation which already forces people into perpetual indentured service for unpaid debts. 
 The story is narrated by Wade Watts, a poor orphan with no friends except those in the OASIS known only by their avatar names. He's so poor that he lives in what they call "The Stacks" which are massive trailer parks where each trailer shares a spot with a dozen or so other trailers stacked on top of each other, and held together with metal girders. Wade tells you right away that he won the contest at age 18. He's here to tell us about the story of how he did it after trying for 5 long years. Despite giving away the ending, it's still a fun fast paced journey, through a cornucopia of glorious 80's pop culture, finding out how he did it. 
 In addition to the fun 80's memorabilia, there are some areas of depth with the concepts of what happens when an economy collapses and basic mobility becomes a luxury of the rich. In this not so distant future, the only means of escape for most is through virtual reality gaming. This vast virtual reality system, is as far reaching as the internet. It allows both rich and poor easier and safer access to travel the world, take classes, attend parties, fall in love, wage war and just about everything, most of which is completely unavailable to the poor in the real world. When virtual reality is so much better than actual reality, who needs the real world? 
 Our economy now isn't in collapse and yet this world isn't all that far off from how things are now due to our collective obsession with social media, texting and video games. Besides those who stay home and avoid people altogether, many people who go out still pay more attention to their electronics than the people they are with, or the shows that they're at etc.. Imagine if gas prices became so high that you couldn't go anywhere. We'd all be online even more than we are now. 
 Of course humans do actually need the real world with face to face and skin to skin contact. The book delves a little into the isolation and loneliness that exists without it but I couldn't help longing for more in this area. The real world experiences could have been grander with more attention to the lost experiences of touching, feeling and smelling things (especially other people) in a way you can't in the virtual world. 
 Even though the virtual reality world is great for the poor, it doesn't erase class distinction because people must buy or earn add-ons to improve their avatars appearance, power and travel capability. I loved the attention given to creating an identity. This virtual reality world is just as fixated on appearances as the real world is so people spend their limited money on these add-ons in an effort to make themselves into something they think others will be more approving of. 
 There were times when I would get annoyed with the simplistic language and cliches but I kept reminding myself that this is likely how many gaming kids would actually talk. Some of the cliches were things my friends and I said in the 80's like "Let's blow this pop stand" and others were ones heard but unused like "Get out of Dodge". It's funny to read these things in a book. Suffice it to say however, one thing you will not get from this book is language enrichment. 
 I'm sure people who don't like this will focus on the language, but that isn't fair since the language is an integral part of the story and characters. Read it knowing it's the point of view of an 18 year old gamer who's had little real world experience and whose caretakers were drug addicts and criminals. It would be inappropriate for him to have a sophisticated eloquent vocabulary. Relax and have some fun! I surely did.