Maybe some other people can review Ready Player Two without mentioning Ready Player One, but I'm not one of them. So, here we go.
Ready Player One knocked my socks off from the very first page. I knew it was going to be something amazing and legendary from the get-go, and I stand by that, though even the first book has its obvious downfalls and the biggest critique seems to be that it's an info-dump of 80s pop culture. But, hey. That's the time period I grew up in as well, so while the book may not have captured the imagination and heart of someone older or younger, it did for me.
So I waited with baited breath for the next book by Ernest Cline. And I tried to like Armada>, I tried really hard, actually. But I didn't. So that totally upped the ante for Ready Player Two for me--and, I suspect, for many of you. I also have the somewhat limiting habit of putting myself too much in the shoes of the author, anxiously awaiting how the masses are going to like their latest book. Having never (yet) finished a story of my own with which to try the rocky seas of publication see if anybody beyond my own circle of friends will like to read it or not, I know I'm not at the exact same place a published author is when waiting for reader feedback, but I can imagine it's pretty terrifying, especially when the track record has been dubious at best. And I hate hurting anyone's feelings, which compromises how objective I can be in some of my review, I know. So yeah.
What I liked about Ready Player Two:
The retro video game and 80s/90s pop culture trivia was, if anything, even more interesting to me than it was in the first book, because a lot of this stuff was even more obscure (to me, anyway) and I actually learned a great deal of interesting facts that I didn't know about before. I'd often find myself pausing to google something and find out more about it, and you know what? That's pretty awesome.
Cline made an effort to make his characters more diverse this time around, and while some will scoff or take issue with it, I give him points for trying. I tried not to read any articles or reviews before finishing the book, so as not to cloud my own feelings about it, but I did see the headline about the "non-binary sex" fumble. I get that, and we can all improve. But it's better to try to be inclusive, and then accept feedback, than to just not try to be inclusive at all. I loved that there was a non-binary character in this book. I hope we see more of that, going forward.
The story, and the character of Wade himself, have both matured. Again--yeah, I get it--there's still tons of room for improvement. But one of the biggest wins for me was Wade's having matured when it came to sex, and sexual orientation, in general. The jokes about Art3mis potentially being a middle-aged man named Chuck, in the first book, gave Wade the vapors and sent him into a sexual identity crisis at the thought of potentially loving and/or being sexually attracted to another male. And yeah, as a teenager, sexual identity crises are not out of the ordinary. But as someone who is not heterosexual myself, it still felt like a stab, like the old "gay joke" which has long outworn its welcome. Cline, and Wade, set that right in the new book. Thanks to the technology of ONI, Wade has now had lots of experiences very diverse from his own upbringing, and yes, that includes sex too, so he's more level-headed about the whole thing, and the thought of "non-heterosexual sex" (for lack of a better term) no longer freaks him out. You know what? That's really cool. It acknowledges all of us out there who aren't heterosexual and/or cisgender, and in my mind, that is something to be celebrated.
With more of a focus on the character of Kira Morrow, and the admission that she had been overlooked as one of the founders of the OASIS, some more cracks appeared in the glass ceiling. The retro gamer geek world has some pretty amazing female figures, both as creators and gamers, but they still seldom get the recognition they deserve. This felt like a nod to that.
It was also fun to read. While I admit that the first few chapters did not grab me and draw me in as quickly as the first book did, by page 50 or so, I was definitely hooked, and I certainly finished this book a lot faster than any of the other books I've read recently.
What I didn't like about Ready Player Two:
The pacing. In Ready Player One, there were moments of intense action and pressure, and stretches of downtime (sometimes good, sometimes also tense but in a good way) as the quest for the first easter egg stalled, the way any true treasure hunt would. It was like a brand new game that nobody has ever seen before, and everything along the way had to be learned by trial and error, and luck. But this time around? It read like someone who didn't even *bother* to try to use trial and error, and instead just read the game walkthrough from start to finish. One of the characters always knew exactly what obscure and arcane thing was needed next, and it was a headlong rush to collect a bunch of crystals that felt more like speed-running a game while your friend sits on the couch next to you, reading the walkthrough and telling you what to do step by step. You still get to the same ending, yeah, but some of the fun of it has been stolen away in the process. Now yeah, in the story, the characters are under time constraints to do what they had to do. So I guess it had to go down that way. But it left me dissatisfied.
Ditto for L0hengrin and her entire part to play in this. (I use the pronoun she, as it was what the character's preference was stated to be.) I was intrigued by her character, and the entire band of the L0W Five, and I wanted to know so much more! But it felt like a total cop-out, how little we really got to see about what they were off doing. I suppose that could be a gimmick and a way to eke another story out of this fictional universe, and while it's one I would read in a heartbeat, it only contributed to the abrupt pacing of this story, making me feel like I was reading a Cliff's Notes version instead of an entire, unabridged book. There was a lot to pack in, and it didn't all get packed in.
Audiences have said loud and clear that they need more to a story than just an info-dump of retro trivia, so while that worked the first time around with Ready Player One, I think we all need more, this time around. And with the rushed pacing and abridged storyline, glossing over or not showing a lot of the action at all left me feeling like I'd only gotten to see 1/4 of the story.
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![Ready Player Two: A Novel (Ready Player One Book 2) by [Ernest Cline]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51AgYQZGLaL._SY346_.jpg)
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I enjoyed this even more than Ready Player One!
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2020
I couldn’t put this book down. It was everything I wanted in a follow up to Ready Player One. I got chills throughout, tears at the end, was taken on many exciting adventures with lovable characters and wowed by the imagination behind the tech. Sure, there were a few “woke” references but was it too much? Absolutely not! He didn’t beat readers over the head with any moral high ground, just a few quick references that honestly felt modern and on point. Didn’t bother me or detract from the story... and boy what a story! If you loved the first book you will definitely appreciate this one as well.
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2020
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Top reviews from other countries
M. Notman
Well this is mostly terrible
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 25, 2020
Jay
It’s like the first book, if the first book was awful.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 26, 2020AG
Bad print possible QA issues be warned
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 24, 2020
AG
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 24, 2020
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vix
This is why you shouldn't look forward to books.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 25, 2020Chunky Le Funga
Same quality of the first book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 1, 2020
