Ready Player Two: A Novel

Well, I’ve never been more excited for a book sequel since the original Harry Potter books, but so far, I”m frustrated. I’m about half way through the book and am having trouble focusing and enjoying the story due to all the political/agenda driven gender politics being thrown in. It’s clear Ernest Cline chose to compliment today’s media trends and include gender bias references that have nothing to do with the characters/story being told. If you’re familiar with the term “woke” entertainment, this book plays right into that medium. So far, very disappointed.

I had high hopes for this sequel but it didn't come close to recapturing the nostalgia and adventure of the first book. Cline sounds like he's utterly bored by his own writing and takes every opportunity he can to beat you over the head with the "woke" bat in case you didn't get it the first 10 times. Just tell a good story. I don't need your politics or a lecture.

Let me start by saying, I don't believe it is necessary to be a good writer in order to write a fun and enjoyable story. I believe Ready Player One was a prime example. Cline, in my opinion, is not a great writer. But Ready Player One was a fun story with entertaining characters and enjoyable plot.Ready Player Two is none of these things.Probably highest up on my list of issues with Ready Player Two is the fact that the novel is perfect example of the BIGGEST no-no in writing- show, don't tell. A writer's job is to craft scenes in which the reader is taken through the plot ALONG with the characters. If a narrator, or worse a character, is just telling the reader what happened, that is called exposition. Can exposition be useful as a writing device? Yes. Absolutely. But, to be clear, Ready Player Two is about 75% exposition! That's about 74% too much.By the end of the novel, when the plot is actually moving forward through scenes, the reader really has no reason to be invested in the story. The characters are there, but why do we care? This thing and that thing are happening and it's "important," but why do we care?On to the nostalgia dumps that Cline is known for. Can that be fun? Sure. If you like that kind of thing. I do. I think a lot of people do. But honestly, a significant portion of this novel's word count is just that. Do you remember yada yada yada? Well, let me describe it to you and explain its cultural relevance. I mean, a VERY VERY high percentage of the word count is nostalgia dump. This is what is called filler...when you don't really have anything to say.That leads into the last point, although I could go on. Was Ready Player Two really necessary? The first novel was a complete story and had a definitive ending. Is it fun to return to that world? I guess. If you have a story worth telling. And that, for me, was not proven by Ready Player Two. I won't talk about the plot, but it just feels like Cline wasn't sure what he wanted to say. He wasn't sure where he wanted to take the characters or why any of this was important. And it showed.I won't give it 1 star, because it's not Mockingjay (Hunger Games,) or any of the Twilight novels...Buy it, borrow it, read it. In my opinion, it's just not a good novel.

Heavy handed. This happened, then this happened, then this happened...ad nauseum. Just zero expository. How does our hero feel? Who cares. Let’s force-feed multiple references into a single sentence like some kind of wikipedia-plagiarized last-minute fourth grade book report. The references are s-p-e-l-l-e-d out for you. How about a little subtlety? After all, it’s not referential if it’s laid out like an inline footnote. More to the point, it’s not an easter egg unless it’s at least partially hidden, right?

Went in with zero expectations but ended up disappointed. The nostalgia feeling from the first book just wasn't there. Yes, random factoids about the 80s were listed endlessly throughout the book, but it felt more like reading Wikipedia.Also the identity politics was very in your face. Non-traditional sexual identity/orientation was frequently highlighted but didn't seem to have any point to the story (you could take it all out and the story wouldn't change at all). Contrast that with Jaqueline Carey's works where sexuality was an integral part of the story. This book was very heavy on preaching and light on the fun, engaging story that made the first book so enjoyable.The main character, Wade, also felt non-existent in this second book. All his choices were bad, he's too weak, can't do anything on his own, etc. Characters can have foibles and need to overcome challenges, but all the characters in this second book seem like shallow caricatures of their vibrant, unique selves from the first book.I feel like I'm reliving the Original and Prequel Star Wars trilogies with this book. I just pray their isn't a third part in store...

I've read "Ready Player One" multiple times and can't stop. "Armada" was a let down, but completely readable and mostly fun.The long awaited "Ready Player Two" is garbage. I gave up about 15% of the way through.The author can't go more than a dozen pages without virtue signaling about some present day cause. You can almost parrot what woke garbage is coming next just from context. This is not something he did in his previous novels.Even if that were not the case, like the first book, RP2 is another Easter egg hunt in the Oasis, but with none of the stakes.Wade is comfortable following the events of the first novel and there is little motivation for him as a character. There's even less motivation for him to go on the egg hunt since there is no specific prize for the one who finds it. Instead of being hungry and determined, he's bored and throws money at the challenge."Ready Player Two" is dull and painful. Save your time and money.To continue reading would have permanently tainted my memory of the first novel.

Oh dear.I loved Ready Player One, it had well constructed and coherent (mostly 80s) cultural references, likeable characters and a well thought out plot.This has random 90s films and 00s tv shows shoved in like he is trying to show how nerdy and geeky he is. Most of them have zero relation to what he is actually talking about. The sole good bit is the John Hughes bit really. Although i also think he has missed the "Duckie is actually gay but its the 80s" lesson.None of the characters is likeable anymore..in fact they are all horrible 2 dimensional charicatures of those from the first book for much of it. Only really in the middle do we see flashes of their earlier selves. And its a mess..not just the writing but the printing, my copy has pages with no border, left centred, right centred, weird font size changes..Im very very dissapointed. His three books so far have gone Brilliant, Ok (Armada) and pretty much trash..

Pre ordered and was really expecting a high quality hardcover print to my surprise got a defective print where parts of the book were not aligned correctly with the rest of the book - SHAME AMAZON FOR SENDING OUT DEFECTS. Returning it immediately in the hopes that not all books have the same quality issue.

Nowhere near as good as Ready Player One. That was a fun idea, with a fair amount of 80’s nostalgia references thrown in for the sake of advancing the plot - an Easter egg based on the designers favourite things!Here we have essentially the first book, but way too much pop culture wankery; it suffers from the same issue that Armada did - every character is the author. Or, who the author wants to be.This is a hot mess of hi-fiving, fist-bumping, random dancing, character-pointing (I lost track of how many times a character is described as pointing/levelling a finger), and masses upon masses of excess pop culture references, not for the sake of furthering the plot, but for the author to show off with his “omg incredible encyclopaedic knowledge of pop culture”.Lazily written cash grab, could have happily ended on the first book without this ego stroking steaming dump of a novel.

This is what happens when there's too much of a good thing. The explorations and expansions of pop culture feels old and honestly- like someone hammering out 300 pages of a book + possible movie deal to make the big bucks.Best way to describe it- like a school essay where the first little bit was fine, then a long winded free association blah blah blah in the middle (honestly skimmed most of it- there were a couple of quests which were mildly interesting) with a conclusion that seemed to be introduced entirely out of thin air with no relation to the introduction whatsoever. As another reviewer mentioned, all main (ie original) characters are one dimensional, dull and forgettable. New characters were interesting and enticing even with their lack of screen time. I for one would have been far happier with a collection of shorts featuring the low 5.A tenner is like a large glass of not-house-wine in a London Pub so basically imagine how conned and disappointed you feel when that glass is barely drinkable and you've pretty much read this book!

Contains spoilers:Like the first book, the book is alright but not a masterpiece.The storyline itself was decent but I didn't like how Halliday suddenly became this creepy villain.He was never a creep, just a genius geek that was in love with his best friend's wife.Would have been better if Anorak actually killed people rather than him just going only joking.A darker ending would have been better.The 80s references continue to be a big focus of the book but a lot felt forced and put in pretty much to show the writer is an 80s dude, but it didn't add to the story.What I really didn't like was how Ernest tried to shove his 'wokeness' down our throats. That wasn't there in the first book but now suddenly he's all woke and has to tell everyone how woke he is. Pull the other one mate, it clearly reads like someone desperate to get the community on their side. We're not falling for that one.You really want the community on your side? Just write a character like normal and don't make a big deal about gender/sex/identity etc.Overall I'd say this book is the same calibre as the first one, if not a tiny bit better. Surprsingly better than I expected, considering I didn't think sequel was gonna work as the first book pretty much wraps up everything.Not sure there's much legs for ready player three... Guess we'll see.