Ready Player One

Ernest Cline was raised in a world of orange shag carpeting and wood panelled dens. An era where grimy arcade games were stuffed in the corners of pizza joints and bowling alleys and John Hughes movies were our teenage touchstones.

Cline may not be a great writer and frankly Ready Player One plays out like a screenplay that foreshadows the inevitable movie. Still, that's not to say this isn't a hella fun read.

We're talking competitive bouts of Pac-Man,Tempest and a memorable head-to-head against a Lich King playing Joust. It's walking the marbled halls of the Tyrell Corporation, flying the Serenity with Max Headroom as your personal AI or racing your own DeLorean. Throw in some School House Rocks, Family Ties, Ghostbusters and mix well. It's guilty pleasure in the form of geek lore. I blazed through this in a weekend.

All that's missing is the denouement where the villain is escorted away shaking his fist and screaming “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!”