Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline, a review

Ready Player Two’s Back-of-Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The highly anticipated sequel to the beloved worldwide bestseller Ready Player One, the near-future adventure that inspired the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film.

 

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST • “The game is on again. . . . A great mix of exciting fantasy and threatening fact.”—The Wall Street Journal

 

AN UNEXPECTED QUEST. TWO WORLDS AT STAKE. ARE YOU READY?

 

Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.

Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive—than even Wade dreamed possible.

With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest—a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize.

And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants.

Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.

 

Lovingly nostalgic and wildly original as only Ernest Cline could conceive it, Ready Player Two takes us on another imaginative, fun, action-packed adventure through his beloved virtual universe, and jolts us thrillingly into the future once again.

My Thoughts

It was a long time ago when I read it, but I LOVED Ready Player One (click on that title to go to the review). I remember being so sucked into it that I couldn’t put it down for a whole weekend – I literally didn’t do anything else. So imagine my surprise when I see there’s a second book!

I had no idea the author was righting a sequel. And to be honest I didn’t think the book needed one – Ready Player One was so good all on its own.

Surprise aside, I was excited to read Ready Player Two and I expected to be just as sucked in as I was with the first one. But it turned out maybe too much time had passed between reading the first one and reading this one? And yes, there was a movie released in between – I even thought about watching it again to refresh my memory – but we all know the movie was a little different than the book. More than a little, actually.

In any case, I jumped in and tried to remember all that happened in the last book, with a little help from the author. He included enough information to kind of remind me of the previous epic quests all the characters had been on while setting up these new, unexpected developments.

There was a short period of getting used to the technical explanations and descriptions as the author explained how the virtual advancements worked and what it was like for the users in the real world. Then he went on to explain the virtual worlds and all the opportunities in them. Which then lead to the new catastrophe facing the users of the OASIS.

It was fun to hear about the characters again! We also meet a few new ones, and they seem well-rounded and real. The setting descriptions were pretty good, for the most part. There’s a lot of different settings, some of which are hard to picture. But I think that’s to be expected with a story about virtual reality.

The new quest that the main characters have to go on takes the reader through multiple virtual worlds that all reference other movies, books, music, etc. There were quite a few references that I didn’t get, however my lack of recognition didn’t detract from the story too much. Except there were times I thought “How could anyone remember all these details about all these things?!” (I mean… I’ve seen The Office like a bajillion times and there are things I even miss on trivia nights.) It was almost like the author was trying to cram a little too much into the story.

But do you like John Hughes movies? (Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, etc.) How about Prince? Or The Lord of the Rings? If you answered yes to any of these, then you’re in for a treat!

Without giving away any spoilers…the ending is kind of controversial. In fact, I’d be VERY curious to hear your thoughts on it if you’ve read the book. I don’t think I liked it very much… I didn’t hate it, and a lot of stuff was wrapped up nicely, but this one big thing was a little strange.

The book definitely had its ups and downs. It’s possible that it was just really hard to follow up on the greatness that was the first book? It’s also possible that my opinion is a little lacking since not all of the references meant as much to me as they would to other people?

Regardless – Ready Player Two was a fine story with some exciting suspense and interesting quotes.

Favorite Quotes From Ready Player Two

“…the rational part of my brain knew that the vast majority of the people who trolled us online were actin gout, due to crushing disappointment with their own miserable lives. And who could blame them? Reality was completely miserable for a vast majority of the world’s population.”

 

“But like Bono before me, I still hadn’t found what I was looking for.”

 

“…life is like an extremely difficult, horribly unbalanced videogame. When you’re born, you’re given a randomly generated character, with a randomly determined name, race, face, and social class. Your body is your avatar, and you spawn in a random geographic location, at a random moment in human history, surrounded by a random group of people, and then you have to try to survive for as long as you can….Some people play the game for a hundred years without ever figuring out that it’s a game, or that there is a way to win it. To win the videogame of life you just have to try to make the experience of being forced to play it as pleasant as possible, for yourself, and for all of the other players you encounter in your travels.”

 

“And sometimes when you think you’ve finally reached the end of the game, suddenly you find yourself standing at the start of a whole new level. A level you haven’t seen before. And the only thing you can do is keep right on playing. Because the game that is your life still isn’t over yet. And there’s no telling how far you might be able to get, what you might discover, or who you might meet when you get there.”

In Conclusion

This is tough, but I’m going to say 3.5 stars. While Ready Player Two was not quite as gripping for me as the first book, I did really enjoy it and I read it fairly quickly. But to be honest, I kind of think he tried to fit too much in and did a few too many “name drops” in referencing other works. That said, it was still fun and I’m glad I read it.

I think people who loved all the 80s references in the first book are going to be happy to see more references in this one and relive more movies, music, and books through the characters’ adventures in virtual worlds. If you enjoy reliving nostalgic things and epic quests, be sure to give this book a shot! This does not work as a standalone book – so make sure you read Ready Play One, first if you haven’t already.

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