The basic setting of the book is a near future where Earth is decaying. Instead of fixing their problems, people retreat inside their virtual worlds to escape. This makes it sound like the book is preachy, but it really isn't. For most of the book, it just sort of treats this as the state of the world without much comment.
Further, the book doesn't take itself particularly seriously and, as such, makes for a light, fun read full of nostalgia. I imagine it would be an even better read for someone who was actually a nerdy teenager in the 80's but I still enjoyed it with my moderate grasp of 80's geekdom. The whole book is designed to make the reader exclaim "Oh yeah, I remember that!" Everything from Zork to a Joust arcade machine to a specific Dungeons and Dragons handbook makes an appearance.
The book feels a little like a low budget Snow Crash that attempts to make up for its short comings with nostalgia. I don't want to say that it completely failed because I enjoyed it, but it was definitely a beach read (which is where I read it).
Overall, I would give this book an 82%.
