Ready Player Two

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.