A fun, fast read, written in that slightly flat and plain style of a lot of YA science fiction, so much so I wonder if it was originally intended as such. Set in a future where the majority of the impoverished population escape the grim reality of a world in environmental, social and economic meltdown in a massive immersive virtual reality. The inventor of said reality dies heirless and leaves his immense wealth to whoever can win his final game. After years of puzzling over the initial clue, our hero solves it, and the game begins, with other players close behind an an evil corporation willing to cheat and even kill to lay their hands on the prize.

So, this is celebrated as a book for geeks of all shapes and sizes, particularly those with a fondness for eighties pop and gaming culture, with most of the clues and puzzles and games constructed around obscure eighties trivia. This should probably have been more annoying than it was, in fact a lot of it should have been more annoying than it was. The unpleasant future, some of which was arguably seeded in the excesses of the eighties, mitigates against it somewhat, and Wade's description of his early confrontation with the realities of his life creates a sense pathos that keeps the reader from begrudging him the escapism we have the privilege of both taking for granted and looking askance at. The mobile homes stacked on the outskirts of the city packed with the poor and the dispossessed is as potent and shabby and sobering an emblem of our possible future as the virtual reality is a vision of the amazing technology of tomorrow. The contrast between the two rings horribly true.