6/20/12 I loved this book and the entire idea of something like the OASIS existing, and the game that was just played out. This was pure nostalgia for me in many of the 80's details, but sometimes those references seemed forced. 
 I deducted one star from my review because I found an error in the timeline/continuity of the story that bugged me for the rest of the book. I don't mean in the sense of "that album was released in 1986, not 1987" type of thing. If you can refute me, let me know in the comments. I'd love to know I'm wrong. 
 I like to think that, in the spirit of the book, this will get back to the author, who will then award me some grand prize for finding his Easter Egg. :) 
 (view spoiler)[Error) How did IOI know to monitor Wade's movements before he found the Copper Key? He left his Aunt's trailer by the back window before he found it and cleared the first gate, and had been in the Hideout ever since. They had no reason to monitor his movements before then, unless they monitored the movements of every gunter, but I doubt they had the resources for that. If they started trying to track him after he found the key, that would have been after they claimed to have seen him enter the trailer a few days before. (hide spoiler)] 
 That being said, I'm looking forward to this author's next effort! 
 Update 5/26/15. Reread the book, with a particular eye to see if my error mentioned above holds true, and I found a way that it could work: 
 (view spoiler)[ It seems that at least a few days have passed between Wade's leaving the trailer and IOI destroying his stack. The author never says that he had returned to the stack in that time, but I'm willing to believe that he certainly could have. (hide spoiler)] 
 So, I gave it that last star. In the three years since I read this book the first time, I had forgotten enough to make it fun again, and I'm glad I gave it another turn. I'm pretty sure that you don't have to have been raised in the 80s to enjoy, but to make sure I'm trying to get my 14 year old daughter to read it and see what she thinks.