At the beginning of the book the author does give a fair warning about references to his other works. Honestly I had never heard of the series so I’m sure their were many references I missed.
I do love all of his geek and nerd references. However the book is just good. It will not change literacy or even start of a genre. However it is a good read and seemed to pick back up some of the original spark the last one fell well short of.
Overall give the series a try and even if book four made you doubt this this one a try it is a solid read.