If ever a book was written that I'd want Morgan Freeman to read to me as my bedtime story it would have to be "Ready Player One". Because, quite frankly it's the only way this book could ever improve. In fact I may have done you all a favour now, because as the internet has informed us on many an occasion, when challenged to read something in Morgan Freeman's voice it is impossible not to.

In fact, I just tried it by re-reading the first page, and yes, it works. Morgan Freeman just made the awesome truly spectacular.

So, back to the real task in hand. "Ready Player One" is a book I picked up a few weeks ago, I read the interesting blurb on the back and then the reviewer comments in the front pages to find that this is a book set in a dystopian future, it's a sci-fi adventure story laden with wonderful geek culture references, it's an epic story of good veruses evil, there are dragons, monsters, robots, hight tech weaponary, it's fresh, funky and stylish and if that wasn't enough it's on an 80s' kick that could potentially implant very vivid and real memories into the minds of those born in the 90s'.

Without putting any spoilers in here, the story centres around Wade Watts who lives in a not too distant dystopian future that smacks of classsics such as The Matrix or Blade Runner, abject poverty, online lives and a virtual utopia that sees a very depleted, dying and thoroughly unpleasant real world. But it's not all bad as people have "The OASIS" to log into to escape the horrible outside world and live within the confines of a universe where anybody can be anything and more.

But there's more, creator of The OASIS, James Halliday has died without any heir and has launched the greatest egg hunt the world has ever seen, where the winner of the hunt basically becomes him and can rule and run The OASIS. But there are puzzles galore for those who hunt and a serious 80s' kick to make all of us 30 somethings who have read the bok remember the 80s' fondly for it's music, movies and games.

So, essentially what we have here is an adventure story about a great hunt and the usual friendships, conflict, bad guys and love that you'd expect from one of the great movies of the 80s'. And it does it so well, unbelievably well in fact.

This is a book that takes Orwell and mashes it up with those movies we watched as kids while we waited for our cranky old Commodore 64's to load the kind of games that this book references. It's a movie lovers' fantasy, it's a gamers' wet dream, it's a book that commands reading, either with or without the voice of Morgan Freeman.

The highs and lows of the story are almost like a rollercoaster in how they come thick and fast, there's plenty of emotion and personality behind the book's characters that make you feel their sadness when it all goes wrong for them, and of course makes you want to punch the air while accompanied by Simple Minds (Don't You) Forget About Me when it all goes right, which I felt like doing on many an occasion, and almost wish I had that particular song on my Mp3 Player while reading it on the train.

But the biggest surprise of the book for me didn't come in it's actual story, it came in the acknowledgments at the end. Ernest Cline referenced and paid homage in this section to all mentioned in the book itself, but when it said this was his first novel I was truly shocked. When you read how the book is put together, how it flows and how well written it actually is, it feels like it has been written by a seasoned author, by someone who has a multitude of books behind him, that nearly saddened me as I thought after reading "Ready Player One" that I may have something new to read and look forward to.

In short, "Ready Player One" is a must read for anyone who has a geeky nature, for anyone who loves great movies and games and for anyone with a soul really.

Read it, read it now, and like I said earlier, take that awesome book and do the only thing to make it more awesome and read it in Morgan Freeman's voice.

You can find out more about Ernest Cline at his website here.