Ready Player Two
Ratings389
Average rating3.1
Contains spoilers
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.
Interesting premise, I liked this one a lot. Not a huge fan of prince, but that scene was hilarious.
One of my least favourite books. Constantly cringe inducing, Cline has tried to write something that Stands Above the Rest but is unfortunately utter dogshit.
About a third of the way into the book, I wanted to believe that the author could turn this around. Have the protagonist be an unreliable narrator, the nerds version of Lolita. But there's just not enough to really make that comparison — it's a bad book! With a garbage, morally corrupt main character who gets Everything He Wabts in the end because That's How Good Books Are. Nothing changes! He's as horrible at the end as at the beginning!
I felt like a locked in coma patient. I couldn't escape the hell hole that is this novel.
It had its moments, but it also had parts where it dragged. The ending was also horrifically bad.
Not bad. At first I was annoyed because I thought the plot was just going to be a repeat of the first book, and it kind of still is, but at least there is a twist in the appearance of an AI bad guy . I did find myself annoyed that at times I was just essentially reading a tldr of a twitch stream rather than an actual story.
Still entertaining, but also it's hard to write a continuation story about an underdog character who is no longer an underdog.
This sequel proved to be a very welcome additional ‘chapter' to this story, both expanding on the dynamics from the first novel and significantly raising the stakes. There is even an element of mystery and intrigue as the nature of the new macguffin is revealed. And while most of the characters remain the same, there are some welcome additions and expanded roles for previously supporting characters who all play significant roles in the latest journey. All of the pop culture references remain as impactful, especially if you are fans of the mega-stars and franchises that get the most air time, and the writer does a nice job reutilizing the right pieces of the original story's structure, while still adding new and fresh layers.
After throughly enjoying Ready Player One I had high expectations going in. This book is great, a bit predictable as some others suggest, but overall I would recommend if you like Ready Player One.
Started out a little slow but really enjoyed the story and the ending!
Such a disappointment. Feels like he listened too much to his critics instead of just writing from the heart.
В общем, я не осилила это. Сначала забросила на несколько месяцев, а вернувшись к чтению поняла, что это просто не стоит моего времени, когда вокруг столько хороших книг.
Вторая часть бесконечно плоха, хоть я и прочитала лишь 14% от книги. Как будто автор написал очень плохой фанфик по первой части. Бесконечное словоблудие, перегруженность деталями и фансервис.
В целом, очевидно, конечно, что Эрнест Клайн автор одной книги. Не считая «игрока» у него была лишь паршивая попытка пересказать «Игру Эндера».
Had such a blast being back in the world of the OASIS with these characters. Although the original nostalgia-fuelled buzz of Ready Player One has worn off a little bit, Ready Player Two manages to up the stakes, up the references and tell an epic tale of the things, and the people, that we love.
Really do recommend checking this one out! Whether you read the first one years ago or you simply lost interest in the premise - this is a super worthwhile, timely, and entertaining sequel. May even be the Empire Strikes Back to the first's Star Wars.
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.
This book is filled with 70's,80's,90's trivia - American trivia - more than it's predecessor. Which, as a non-resident doesn't excite me that much. For that same reason, the book felt like a pain to go through and read all the details of a person or thing that happened in the past that I had no idea about and the whole mission was about it. I liked the concept of the new device. Loved the final few battles and the writing for all the battles.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. Especially their decision related to the space ship, how everything seems to happy and fluffy when the main character has a myriad of mental issues and has committed a lot of crime himself that nobody knows about...
But I also think, people who relate to the trivia might enjoy the book a lot more than I did. It was boring to go through all that trivia for me that I don't really care about... Hence the 3 stars.
Also, what was that about his ex girlfriend falling in love with him in the span of 5 hours??
Bored to tears. (Well, more yelling “I DON'T CARE!” at the audiobook than crying, to be fair.) My kid loves this book, though, and listening to it together was an opportunity (to try, albeit a bit limply) to take an interest. If only it was interesting!
I think all the complaints about the first book apply to this one, but extra. This is a big love fest of early video game trivia and other pop culture of the era. But this book throws in some AI apocalypse stuff too, to shake things up. Being a fan of this pop culture stuff, I enjoyed the book. However, I think the author should have looked at a map of Minneapolis, all his directions were backwards.