Ready Player Two

A Novel

By: Ernest Cline

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Number-One New York Times Best Seller

The thrilling sequel to the beloved worldwide best seller 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 it, 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.

©2020 Ernest Cline (P)2020 Random House Audio

Heartbreakingly Disappointing and Insulting

After having listened to nearly 400 audiobooks, this is the first time I have felt it so necessary as to write a review.

Performance: Simply put, Will Wheaton was exceptional.

Story: I am a huge fan of Ready Player One, having listened to the audiobook nine times and having waited for the pre-order of it's sequel to become accessible as if I were refreshing Walmart's website for a PS5. My desperation to read the sequel persisted while I checked every three to five minutes for the available download on the release day. When I started it, I began with no knowledge of what the plot would consist of and no expectations as to what would take place so as to not establish unfair expectations and to be able to appreciate it for whatever Ernest Cline had written it to be.

As the story began, I was surprised by many of the events that took place immediately following the events of the previous book, those taking place three years later, and how the gap was bridged. As more information about the O.N.I. was released however, I found myself beyond enthralled by the concepts explored and began debating the philosophy and ethics of such a device with my friends. Not since the game SOMA, had I been so absorbed by ideas that so profoundly questioned the subjectivity of defining "humanity", "reality", "pain", and evolution. Without delving too deep and spoiling those who, despite this review, elect to experience Ready Player Two for themselves, I had never been so engaged and excited about concepts regarding the future of technology, humanity, and where the lines would inevitably become blurred between the two. For eight chapters, I grew more and more in love with this novel. Then the "antagonist(s)" were introduced.

Never before had I witnessed a work of art this promising wither and die so rapidly. Eight chapters of advanced, controversial, revolutionary concepts worthy of their own novel are interrupted by the revelations that, in fact, the novel is functionally Sword Art Online. You may feel this to be an exaggeration, however you would be arguing with the author as he, himself, wrote in this book that it was an exact duplication of the events of Sword Art Online on TWO SEPARATE INSTANCES. The antagonists are 1. A diluted rehash of the previous novel's primary villain. 2. An A.I. who lacks any traits that would separate him from any other noteworthy (and more creative) A.I. in literature such as V.I.K.I. from I-Robot or HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, whose motivations mirror those of antagonists from Sword Art Online, The Matrix, Psycho-Pass, Terminator, Tron and any other work of fiction containing such material. And 3. A perversion and retcon of the previous novel's James Halliday, a man defined by his oddities, Steve Job's-like passion for his creations, and most importantly HIS GOOD INTENTIONS. Halliday was expressly stated, and clarified by our every discovery about him, to be a man who cared about his creations first and his friends closely as second despite his proclivity to push others away. He was brilliant, but tragically lost. He was adored and renowned, but ultimately completely alone. It was his nature, not his invention that lead to the formation of his legendary contest. That nature was initially consistent even in this book through his creation of the O.N.I as a tool of communication and his desire that it would ultimately act as the last tool humanity would ever need to understand and save one another. This bastardization or his character is reminiscent of so many other iconic figures of fiction who have been recently desecrated in the name of subversion or some other ill-conceived notion and I'm very sad to see it happen here when James was so understandably tragic and empathetic in Ready Player One.

These issues are objectively and indefatigably cartoonish and insulting. I would have expected these alterations to be thought of in a parody of the original work, not its authentic sequel. If you are able to ignore the retconning of the previous novel, convince yourself that this is a natural progression of the story despite it definitively not being so, and look past the story's disregard for its own reader's intelligence or enjoyment by supplying villains that are just as likely to be found in a skull shaped lair located in a swamp plotting against the Super Friends, then this may be the book for you. To anyone who actually loved the original novel as anything more than a mindless consumer of anything nostalgic, you are likely to be disappointed. It ultimately will come down to how much you care about having a compelling narrative and antagonist in what you read. I, however, simply can not overlook a sequel killing it's predecessor just so it can stand atop its corpse and call itself tall.

rip

lightning does in fact not strike twice. very disappointed in this instalment, felt strained and forced.

Don't waste your time.

I really liked Ready Player One. It was unique, lots of fun, & kept your interest. It had the magic. I've listened to it 3 times. Ready Player Two - Couldn't even make it half way before I returned the book to audible. Don't blame Wil Wheaton for it. He held up his end. Blame Ernest Cline - he wrote a lousy story.

Ready Virtue Signal

While it had some semblance of the first book and at least followed the story from the first book, I feel its different in a negative way. Through different parts of the story theres a lot of virtue signaling that strikes me as injected and out of place. Things put there to get back pat points that dont enrich the story or characters. Some things come across as blatant stereotypes in the attempt to gain points for virtue signaling as well. Its very tiresome to see so many media mediums trying to put political bs from the real world in fiction, it breaks immersion and makes me feel like someone is trying to force feed me things. In my opinion the first book was far less like this and more removed. The narrator is okay, many times he pronounces things incorrectly or has a lack of emotion for certain characters. There are much better narrators.

Be carful

A couple continuity errors between the 1st and 2nd book. Blatant copouts, and unoriginal. I feel this is a cash grab with no heart in the story the people wanted. Wash rinse repeat.....

Definitely not as good as the book 1

Ernest should have been faithful to the old approach, that being RPG eazy sci-fi book. Trying to write hard science fiction and have same child like rpg background was a bad idea... and honestly already few hours in is terribly annoying.

update 1 Wade's an idiot

update 2 I couldn't finish this audiobook

Hollywood got a hold of Ernest Cline, in a BAD way

This book is just a cash grab. I actually can't hate on Ernest Cline for that since he must have been given some GOOD money to sell out this bad. Without getting too political I am just going to say that whoever was advising / helping him edit this book did not do him any favors. I wish we would have just been given Ready Player One and it would have been left at that. Such a great first novel and such a bad direction for the second.

I already made my exchange

Virtue signaling at its finest. I listened to about 3-4 hours of this before I had to return, I just couldn't do it. Feels like authors have a checklist of things that need to be in their books or something. Don't waste your time on this, just go back and listen to Ready Player One.

It’s a meh 😳

Ok without giving to much away, I feel like the first part of the story built pretty slowly for being a sequel. I personally didn’t care for the direction they took with the sequel. I feel like addressing issues in our society in books is fine, but this felt pretty forced. I thought the ending was pretty predictable. Just a meh.

Cline trades video game awesomeness for the lamest points of the 80s

How can you follow up a book that was so perfectly dedicated to video game nerds around the world with a pointlessly politically correct book that focuses on aspects of the 80s that no sci fi/video game/cartoon fan would ever get? It’s sad that an author would obviously try so hard to gain readers from another demographic and in turn bore the group his first book so successfully enthralled. The story line was wonderful, the villain so well created and developed. But I found myself bored thru almost every challenge the high 5 went thru. I can think of hundreds of different movies and singers he could have used that his gamer and 80s fans would grasp better than these lame ones. H’s sexuality and struggles in the first book were so necessary and relevant to the storyline where as this book throws in other alternative lifestyles that did nothing to advance the plot. I found myself getting derailed from the story by numerous “hot topics” that were just barely touched on and thrown at us but had little relevance. So sad that my favorite book ever was followed up by such a swing and miss book as this.