Ready Player Two Review

Ready Player Two, the eagerly anticipated sequel to Ernest Cline 2011 novel Ready Player One dropped this year with a bit of a thud. To be honest Ready Player Two didn't have a chance. Its predecessor was one of the most beloved books that not only stood alone atop of the mountain of nerd culture, but also had Hollywood lining up for the movie rights. Ready Player Two is a very different book

The story reunites the characters of Ready Player One immediately following the ending of the book.  Wade, Art3mis, Aech and Shoto having taken control of the Oasis are on top of the world, the problem for us the reader is all the chemistry  is gone. The seldom interactions between the characters are awkward at best, new characters are introduced never to be seen again and the plot lacks that sense of wonder that took us for a unforgettable joy ride in the first book. 

Cline falls back on the Easter egg trope for control over the Oasis. We see chapters awash in geek fantasy, where the characters must solve  riddles against familiar  enemies. The plot however gets bogged down in in 1980s MTV style details that really hurt the flow of the story. I found myself skipping ahead pages to avoid endless details of certain quest steps just to try and hook back up with the plot again. 

The new enemy of Ready Player Two is James Halliday himself, resurrected Oasis style hell bent for stealing the love of his former partners wife Kira and willing to destroy the world in the process. This plot about face forces us readers who loved the first book to  have to choose between the two. I for one choose Ready Player One. I prefer James Halliday as the lovable high tech savior  and Wade as a relatable every man who against all odds does the right thing and the Oasis as a place of wonder, not yesterdays news. I not only hated what the characters in Ready Player Two became, but I hated the emotional investment  we had in the world Cline created simply thrown away as irrelevant.  

I know it is impossible to catch lightning in a bottle twice and writing a sequel to a beloved story must have been a tall order indeed, but I had high hopes, after all the Oasis is a place where limitless stories reside within.  I just wish Ernest Cline didn't  choose one that destroyed all the things we loved about his world in the process. 

By Ted Dolby

Gamilon Staff Writer