Rating: 4/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 It's approximately 30 years into the future, and virtual reality is part of everyone's lives. The OASIS system is the new way to live, whether you're a gamer or not. It's full of entertainment, quests, and you can even go to school all from the comfort of wherever you're wearing your OASIS visor. However, when the creator of the OASIS dies, the world is thrown into a frenzy. Not because of the fact that he died, but because of what he left behind - the greatest treasure hunt the world would ever know. Halliday, OASIS mastermind, did not leave his fortune behind to anyone, since he had no wife or kids. Instead, the first person to solve a few extremely difficult riddles and find an Easter egg (video game term for something hidden) within the entire OASIS would get his entire fortune (over 200 billion USD) and his whole company. In order to do so, one requires extensive 80's knowledge, since that's the decade Halliday spent his teenage years in. Ready Player One follows Wade, a hardcore gunter (egg hunter) whose life changed drastically once he became the first to solve the first riddle, which the world has been pondering over for five years. 
 I've been meaning to read this book for a very long time, and I'm extremely happy I finally decided to do so. As a gamer and sci-fi fan this book appealed to me a lot. However, I was born in the late 90's so I didn't really understand all of the 80's pop culture references, but I did understand most of the video game references and terminology. I do think you have to be familiar with either one or the other so that you don't feel completely out of the loop, but I'm sure there are people who have enjoyed it anyway. My favourite thing about this book would have to be how the entire thing played like a video game. It does use some outdated terminology that made me cringe a bit whenever I saw it, but it didn't happen too much so cringing was kept to a minimum. 
 In some ways this book was predictable and in others things would be spun around in a way that I don't think anyone could have guessed 100% correctly. I will say that I didn't connect with Wade that much on an emotional level, because of the nature of the book. However, I did like him as a person as well as the cast of supporting characters. This book also made me wonder about the future of virtual reality, because it really is an interesting idea. I'm curious to see if we will ever be able to create technology like the OASIS in this book, and if it would really take over the world like it did in this universe. 
 Overall, after a bit of time to get used to the book, I ended up really enjoying it. As a gamer it's always nice to see a book revolving around one of your hobbies in a way that's interesting to read. Although I didn't personally connect with the characters I found them all likeable, which made up for it. I think that if you aren't familiar with both video games or 80's pop culture reading this book might get annoying since there are so many references to both. I'm not familiar with the 80's at all except for a few bands and a few movies, but that didn't bother me all that much. However if you're interested in this book and you aren't familiar with either, it really is interesting regardless, and you may end up being fine. All in all, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's looking for their next interesting read.