R.K. Gold's Reviews > Ready Player Two

This was easily my biggest disappointment for the year. I thoroughly enjoyed Ready Player One and expected the sequel to at least be an entertaining re-immersion into the promising world of the Oasis. While it offered some interesting philosophical discussion, the majority of the book felt like a rushed plot with little setup and overweighted the importance of 80s references. In the first book these references offered a unique voice, but here they felt like forced cameos on a sitcom that’s lost its way.

This book was all pay off with very little setup creating a constant sense of unfulfillment. This was a problem in the first book but the setting was so inspiring the first go around that this flaw didn’t matter as much. Now, the constant reflections on all the things the high five had done in the past being conveniently tossed into the text when the characters needed help with a challenge eliminated all tension (and without that tension it made me question what was the point in continuing a number of time).

When I say this happened on every quest, I mean every quest. The John Hughes quest Samantha knew, the learning is fun kids quest Wade remembered and dropped out of nowhere he couldn’t go back without any prior reference to it, the Prince quest Aech knew, and middle earth one Samantha again — all seven shards (except for the first) was someone in the band saying “well luckily Ive studied this piece of pop culture for years and am an expert at it so we have nothing to worry about.

The first quest offered a moment of “wow maybe things will be different this time” cause Mr. Know It All Wade had to eat some humble pie and ask for help however the “low five” band of friends showed up for like three paragraphs then conveniently arrived later in the book with a massive info dump (like literally piles of documents for the high five).

I cracked up when the all powerful sword to kill Anorak was revealed and called the dork slayer cause this book unironically made a less funny version of the south park world of warcraft quest for the sword of a thousand truths. It was one of the only moments in the book that had a setup and a payoff though so I can’t knock it beyond the premise.

In terms of technical storytelling this book had a ticking clock, elevated stakes, and a systematic removal of side characters leading up to the final showdown so the protagonist could prove they were the deserving hero all along but both of these were completely wiped out when Anorak revealed all his hostages were fine once they were unconscious and never in any real danger. So not only did we feel nothing when Aech and Shoto “died” but any sadness we could’ve felt was wiped away. This was also done when Samantha jumped from her plane and any possible nervousness we felt for her safety was quickly eliminated when she popped up a paragraph later to let everyone know she was fine then signed offline.

As for the characters falling off prior to the final showdown, it turned out Wade wasn’t even the hero who needed to prove himself. Og was. So I guess it subverted this plot structure trope but the only result was me feeling like we followed the wrong character the entire story.

There’s more I could say about this book but honestly at this point it will just be me nitpicking how much I disliked small details and I think I’ve made my point clear enough.

I really enjoyed the first book but this sequel felt like a cash grab with some interesting (but under explored) philosophical discussions thrown in