Ready Player Two By Ernest Cline

Things I Have read

Really?… Is pretty much what I thought when I heard this was going to be made. Why? There was no need. Ready Player One ended well, it wasn’t necessary to continue this story. The happy ending was had, the bad guy was stopped and everything that was needed to be fixed was done. Then I heard that the actors were open to doing a sequel. Ahh! I thought, a money grabber. I understand everything now. I did find out that he started writing the sequel whilst filming the Ready Player One.

Now don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the book the story was well done, but it just felt that the meal wasn’t complete and I didn’t get my fill. I was three quarters there but no desert. And to be clear as with mostly all sequels, the second can never always beats the first. But it does beat his second book Armada. If you have read this book. This is his next attempt at a semi Ready Player One story. But ended up being a The Last Starfighter attempt/remake.

The story, as with all Ernest Cline books, are filled to the max with pop culture references. I hate to think of the amount of time the author went through to get every detail of every item that was placed in the book. Because the details are always deep. I like to think I have reasonable amount of knowledge about the stuff I like, but damn this bloke goes beyond the norm. But to write the types of stories he writes, he has to. You can see in the words he puts down, that he loves it. The passion he has makes, hopeful, alot of us nerds out there very proud.

Warning Spoilers Ahead!

The story starts about a couple weeks after the end of the first book. Where Wade Watts (Parzival) gets a surprise email from the late James Halliday (Anorak). Telling him about a project that was shelved and as with all of Hallidays possessions was now left to Wade to do whatever he wants with. This is the ONI headset. The next level of virtual interfaces, into the universe of OASIS. But this headset allows the user to feel what’s happening in that universe. Fully immersive. The only thing you can’t do is have the benefits of eating and drinking. It also immobilises the body, so your body is vulnerable while you are in the OASIS. As it only needs your brainwaves to use the headset. There is also a twelve hour limit on the time using the device.

So Wade brings the news to the others: Samantha Evelyn Cook (Art3mis), Helen Harris (Aech) & Akihide Karatsu (Shoto). After a discussion they release the tech to the world. But Art3mis is not happy with the new tech and wants nothing to do with it. This pretty much ends the relationship between Wade and Sam. This felt odd to me. Ernest forces a split that didn’t feel real. They had just got together and ends it because of a difference of opinion. I know I’m not the king of relationships, but this seemed petty. And during most of the book there is bitter hatred from Sam to Wade. There was no need. A sub plot was needed so… Yeah. Whatever.

So anyway, the release is a success and because of this, after a certain amount of people log on with the new headsets (7,777,777), it triggered a new quest. The quest for the Seven Shards of the Siren’s Soul. It also comes with a new riddle to work out. But the only ones who can collect these shards are Wade and Ogden Morrow (The Great and Powerful Og), James Hallidays friend and partner. This is due to them being the heirs of Jame’s fortune.

Wade during this whole period is mentally destroyed. Becoming pretty much a hermit in his own home. Although he still had problems from the original book. He slips deeper into his mental disorders. Because of this he is unable to get back into the game. Return to his roots of being a gunter, as much as he tries. So he cheats and because of his fortune, sends out a message for help and a cash prize for information with the first clue. He also gets the help from Robin Williams character from Good Will hunting for therapy.

It takes about year or so before finally, someone comes up with the location of the first shard. With the help of L0hengrin, a YouTube star, he claims the first shard. But now this eventually triggers Anorak to arise again and stealing his God powers back from Parzival, he threatens the lives of all the citizens of the OASIS, that are linked to the ONI headsets. He has locked everyone in the headsets so they can’t log out. And after the twelve hours the brain starts the degrade. So, fun times. Anorak wants the shards for himself and has given Parzival twelve hours to collect the rest or everyone dies. So, he has to team up with the rest of his team the High Fives to collect the rest before it’s to late. This includes Art3mis.

This is where we get back to the run that made the original book fun, the quests. Searching through the worlds of old arcade games, books and this time musical legends from the “Artist Formerly Known As”. Using the knowledge of James Halliday, Ogden Morrow and his late wife Kira Underwood (Leucosia). Properly going to nerd town with the references of pop culture.

This book deals with some questions about immortality and how do we achieve it. Even though the immortality in this book isn’t the true form. Would you want it? Personally, yes. Although I ‘d rather have the true form. He also writes about A.I and questions the morality of it. It’s brief but it’s there.

Even though it was brief he touched on trans gender people with the character of L0hengrin. Which I wasn’t concerned with as he brought a lesbian character in Aech. I do not know why the internet is mad about it. The only problem I saw was that the backstory was a bit short about him/her and his/her friend, the Low Five. This was a general feel for some of the story. But for what I got I was happy that he even attempted the sequel. Even Nolan Sorrento makes an appearance. But this was mainly a filler character, so basically he could have made up a new character and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

If the sequel film is made. I have heard its in pre-production. I would love to see the final big battle between Og and Anorak. The book fight would look immense on the big screen. And would love to see the new book in total. I do wonder how there are going to continue with Daitos character, Toshiro Yoshiakias, as he was killed in the first book but still alive in the film.

The book itself has been getting some bad reviews online and to be honest while some of the reviews may be true alot of it is crying for the sake of crying.

If you enjoyed the first book you may or may not like the second. But that’s down to you. I would of course recommend you give it a try. And absolute recommend the first.

What I would like to see from Ernest Cline next is an Armada Two. Although the first wasn’t the greatest thing I have read. It did leave it open for an interesting continuation.