Don't get us wrong... we loved the book.  It's my not be considered 'fine literature', much like the writing on this site, but it was a real page turner.  Had such a great handle on gamers, geeks and the worlds we all love to imagine playing in.    References to the coolest, funniest and best entertainment in and around the 1980s, RP1 is great fun.

But, like really good science fiction it holds a mirror up to what we are now and suggests where we may be if we don't consider its warning.   It is set in a dystopian future, the world is very ill, awful pollution, the poorest still live in shanty towns, though they look cool on the book jacket - 15 people to a trailer (we call them Holiday Homes in the UK) is hardly a great view of the future.

The main characters are all isolated youth that spend all their time jacked-in to the Oasis, a kind of ultra real Second Life gaming platform... the main protaganist, Parzival, has almost no body hair though choice becaude it makes his Haptic suit work better.

Corporations are fighting over control of the gaming platform, they are even happy to have people killed who threaten their takeover!

Millions of people worldwide only interact with people in the Oasis, never going out, never experiencing the real world, being told and seeing how shitty it has become.  Rather than fix it, they hide from it.

Without spoiling the end.. 'cos we don't know what the film will ulitmately do yet, but the book delivers some hope and shows the kids they is another way...

Go see it, enjoy it... lets see what they do with it.

Louis