My Thoughts on Ready Player Two, by Ernest Cline (Spoilers)

 

Ready Player Two, by Ernest Cline

    SPOILER WARNING FOR BOOK ONE AND TWO. I recently once again read Ready Player Two, by Ernest Kline, and I thought I might write about my thoughts on this book. The first time around I was surprised to find I didn't particularly like this book, which was especially shocking to me as I had quite enjoyed the first book. I was hoping to feel differently after my second read-through; however, I was saddened to find I did not feel that way. 

    One of my main gripes with this book was the regression of many of the characters, particularly the protagonist, Wade. The character growth of Wade from the end of the first book seemed to not continue into the 2nd book, as Wade seems to completely ignore most of what he learned from his first adventure. It seems to me that after becoming famous worldwide and being insanely rich, everything went to his head, and he believes himself above all others.

    Another issue I had in this book was the element of romance. The connection between Samantha and Wade which developed in the first book fails to continue into the start of the 2nd book. A rift had grown between the two between the two books, and only enlarged as the first half of the book went on. This de-evolution of their relationship was especially annoying to me, as by the end of the 2nd book the two characters were in the exact same spot as the end of the 1st book. I did enjoy the logical character growth of Samantha, which made it especially annoying that her involvement with Wade ended in the same spot. Wade had regressed when Samantha advanced, and yet they still resulted in the same romantic attraction. 

    I thought that the writing in this book was really inconsistent. One of my favorite parts of this book was the various pop culture "worlds" and how they were written, especially the world featuring Prince. Ernest Cline did a spectacular job describing the settings, but the characters did not feel well written. Especially the antagonist, who was supposed to be artificial intelligence, did not feel like artificial intelligence. In some scenes the action felt real, but in others I felt like you could easily read what was coming before it happened. 

    There were a lot of issues I had with this book, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't suggest it to anyone. I know some people liked the pop culture references in the first book, and those continued to be built upon in the 2nd book. There is also currently supposed to be a movie of the sequel, and so if you are planning on watching that and want to read the book first you may want to read this book. However, I don't think, outside of those purposes, I would recommend anyone pick up this book. I wouldn't expect there to be a 3rd book either, as the conclusion seemed to wrap essentially everything up, so you wouldn't have to read this book to read that book. If you liked the first book and want to see what happened to everyone, I would instead suggest you read a plot summary.

-Collins