Ready Player Two

I really loved Ready Player One. I know it gets a lot of criticism for just being a string of references, but I thought it nailed exactly what it was going for, it was fun, indulgent nostalgia wish fulfillment. I had varying levels of familiarity with the different references, but even the ones I had no attachment too were engaging because of the enthusiasm put into it.

When this sequel came out, I heard a lot of similar criticisms of the poor reference-heavy writing that I dismissed and queued this up to read soon. But then I saw people who liked the first book being pretty critical of this one as well so I decided to push it off... but then recently the audiobook became available through the library's Skip The Line program despite being reserved for several months, and I was between audiobooks, so I jumped on it.

** Spoilers **

Ready Player Two is not very fun. The main character isn't fun to be with, he's kind of a shitty person at a shitty place in his life and not happy about it. In the first book, he gleefully undertakes his quest and is a super fan of everything he experiences, in this one he barely knows anything about what he's doing and is just forced to do it quickly by the bad guy. I'm even more familiar with the references in this book than the last and yet they were far less fun.

The way this book tries to both bring up social and moral issues of the technology it uses, while also refusing to have any consequences of it for the characters is absolutely insane to me. The entire plot is about how a rogue AI based off of a real person neatly kills billions of people, but the conclusion at the end is that it was just a one-off occurrence and actually AI memory people are actually super neat? The main character spies on people without their knowledge, copies people's entire consciousnesses into these AI things without their knowledge, and at worst he gets a scolding from his girlfriend about that, who eventually comes around to it anyway because she has her grandma back digitally now. But at least the main character learned enough to not use this technology anymore, even though he continues to profit off billions of people still using it and also maintains direct communication with the AI created by it.

I don't think it's all bad, there's still some enjoyable moments that reminded me of what it felt to read the first book. I was probably wavering between a two and a three star rating while reading most of it. The ending definitely cemented it on the lower end that I was leaning to anyways.

I still think the first book probably holds up, as I outlined some of the differences above, but reading this makes me worried that I would have a lot of problems with it if I were to read it again today. Maybe I'll give it a shot sometime.

This book is infuriatingly unnecessary. I loved Ready Player One. Its clever geek references and easter eggs with a joyously silly plot made it a really fun read. The whole thing was beautifully self contained. One thing it did not need was a sequel, and certainly not this mess of a sequel.

There is nothing new or different in Ready Player Two. The whole plot is basically a rehash of Ready Player One, but sillier. We have new nonsense tech that makes even less sense than the previous story, we have another silly challenge, but this one has less of a feeling of peril associated with it as only the original winners can take part and we have our main character turning into a bit of whiny brat. Don't get me started about the random space ship stuff which just seems to be a weak homage to Elon Musk. Basically it takes everything in Ready Player One and makes it worse.

The book does pick up a bit into its second half where there is some danger forcefully inserted (albeit in a faintly ridiculous way - AI causing plane crashes?). The geek references are still there although particularly at the start are used in a ridiculous way again (the car collection?). The fall off in quality from the first book to the second is abysmal.

After talking so much smack about this why am I giving it 2 stars? Simply because I have still read worse. A lot of the disappointment here is from how badly this compares to it predecessor. If you take that away there is still some fun to be had with the silly adventure in cyberspace. The inner geek in me loves some of the references. Is this a book I am going to recommend to any one? Hell no. If you want this kind of geek adventure read the first book - there is no need to read this second one. Ultimately this whole thing is entirely unnecessary.

3 stars - see full video review here : https://youtu.be/WHA7M8yUd1A

While there were many flaws in this story i felt that the hunt was a bit too overdone and there was too much time spent on each topic. Plus it seemed as though the secondary characters pulled all the weight here and that made for a lousy experience.

Well. My expectations were very high, as its predecessor was (is) one of my favorites for the last decade. It was a tough read. Because the main character, the underdog that rose to fame in book one, became a very unlikeable character. After the first thirty pages of book two, I started to hate him. And it took a hundred pages more before his journey of slef-discovery and self-repair started. It took a while before I got there.

And it was an amusing read after all. Made me dust off my Prince collection, amongst other things. But not as brilliant as Player One. And maybe I should accept that that would be an expectation that was impossible to fulfill.

I'm not quite sure what the point of this was. It's such a retread of the first book, but with bonus AI stuff added in. I liked the stuff that was like RP1 - the treasure hunt - but didn't really care for the weird AI stuff. It was just a bit much. Overall though I did enjoy it so I'll give it four stars.

(This book seriously needed an editor though. There was a lot inconsistencies throughout - names, timelines, even references to the first book. :/ )

Also, I listened to 372 Pages for this one too and, again, they have some decent points. But damn do they not pay attention to the book sometimes. You had one job, dudes, c'mon.

Where the first book had a bunch of different 80s fandoms that were given a few pages each, this one has much longer sections about a smaller number of 80s fandoms. If you enjoyed the nostalgia of the first one (I did) and you're into the smaller number of specific fandoms that this one goes into in greater depth (I am not), then you might like it as well.

If you didn't read or listen to the first one (e.g. if you just saw the movie), do not read this, or you'll be hopelessly confused. It leans in very hard to things that were in the first book, but were changed for the movie.

I have a big soft spot for Ready Player One - it kinda blew my mind when i read it all those years ago. But this book... why was it written? Really did not need to be made. To me it seems like Cline was like “Oh Armada didn't sell that well, guess I gotta go back to the ol RPO cash cow!”

Breezy Internet-age pulp (though I did find the post-humanist stuff near the end kinda interesting)

Certainly liked the first book a bit more. However, just the same as the first book, it felt as if I greatly overgrew Ready Player Two.

Some of the ideas were presented in such a childish way, that it was so painful to read about. I was especially irked by the idea, that GSS hired an equal proportion of men and women. I see what the author wanted to show, but it seems that he completely forgot that equality is not in numbers, but in something completely different - valuing a person's abilities no matter their gender.

I feel like I need to write this review to help it out a bit. If you liked the format of the first book, you will like the format for this book. The characters pretty much stay the same, and Cline has to do a few things to reset it enough to start another quest. It's actually a decent reset in my opinion. And then here we go again. If you liked the first one, and want to go for the same ride again, the get Ready Player Two.

The egg hunting middle portion of this book lags hard. Maybe I've fallen out of favor with the hyper references that made ready player one a fun read for the first time. But this time it just feels like too much.

The actual details of the plot and technology are what really shines here. Not the references and meta references. 

I hated this and feel like my life is worse having read it. The plot was so disjointed and didn't make any sense. The logic they use to solve clues is insane. I groaned and rolled my eyes constantly. The pop culture references so endearingly sprinkled into the first book were now gratuitous and contrived. The characters I loved and rooted for in the first book were so unlikable in the sequel that I honestly did not care what happened to them and kind of hoped they'd fail at their quest. And while I'd braced myself to be disappointed by a tidy ending, the actual ending made me feel gross and almost violated. This was awful and it has ruined the first book for me. How am I supposed to root for Wade and his pals to win the contest in the first book, knowing what a garbage human he becomes? I regret reading this book.

Quiz?? sea porque no soy estadounidense o porque soy m??s joven que el autor, pero esta vez la exaltaci??n de la nostalgia en la que se apoya la historia me ha aburrido soberanamente porque no compart??a ni la mitad de los referentes.

Por lo dem??s, la trama est?? bien pensada y, aunque no deja de ser m??s de lo mismo, est?? bien.

Review: Wade and the rest of the gang survived the first book and are now rich and powerful. But Halliday was not done. He hid something wonderous in his vault that is a headset that will change the world. It enables full virtual reality, taste, sight, hearing etc. Wade screws up his love life with Samantha then throws himself basically into exile and into Oasis game. Addicted more than ever to it. He has a new quest and of course new dangers.

I enjoyed the sequel more than I expected to based on the past reviews which is why I waited so long to read it. The beginning was very description heavy but it was needed.

I read Ready Player One, and Armada, whilst on holiday. They were both good fun at first, however they turned from ‘I get that reference!' to ‘Ok, enough now' very quickly. Now there is a sequel, and here I am.

Read during the pandemic, at home without a constant supply of cold drinks, a swimming pool and sunshine, would the sequel work? Had Cline matured as an author? Of course not.

Without distraction and relaxation, the curtain quickly fell and let the daylight in. The poor writing, lack of tension and plot inconsistencies became jarringly apparent and so, so tiring - did this book actually have an editor? The infamous constant bombardment of 80s references are even more irritating and the characters, especially ‘the hero' are universally unlikable and I could not have cared any less about any of them. Without wishing to spoil, there is a ‘boss' fight that takes place later in the book which is without doubt the dumbest and most insulting thing I have ever seen in a published book - and I've read several Dan Brown novels.

When I'd finished Ready Player One, I gave it to my wife. After a few chapters she asked ‘Is it like this all the way through?' After I sadly nodded ‘yes' she closed it, carefully put it down and never went back to it. I will not be passing this one on to her.