Wrapping up the tail end of the previously mentioned blizzard, I took the opportunity to jump into Ready Player Two. The long awaited sequel to Ready Player One.
A rather brief review, as so much of the details could be considered a spoiler.
The Review of Ready Player Two
In the days after Parzival found the easter egg, and took over ownership of Gregarious Simulation Systems and control of the Oasis (Oasis is a world inside of VR if you are unfamiliar with the first book), a strange new quest appears. This new quest captured the attention of gunters (egg hunters) around the world, but this one, with a twist. Finding the Seven Shards to reconstruct the Siren’s Soul was the challenge. Only heirs to Jim Halladay’s fortune could claim the shards. Thus beginning another race through the Oasis – this one with a treacherous deadline.
Like the first book, Ready Player One, the nostalgia trip through references to pop culture from my developmental years was awesome. I’ll avoid spoilers by saying that while I like the direction the plot too and the fact that it wasn’t as overly reliant upon video games as the first. I think it fell a little short just because of how expansive the new plot’s subject matter can be. Seemed like a lot of story that could have been developed was left off the table, in exchange for some over descriptive narrative of destinations (e.g. planets in the Oasis). Some of the “quests” were solved in paragraphs, others in chapters and I found that kind of frustrating.
It also seems RP2 may have taken some queues from the final scenes of the Ready Player One movie, which I also enjoyed. The final scene had a lot of speculation as it seemed to go above and beyond the story from the book.
The Conclusion
All-in-all though, perfectly enjoyable despite those flaws. Although it does border on a tedious read. On my GoodReads rating, I gave it a 3*. I wish I could have snuck a half star in though. This really wasn’t a 3* but most certainly wasn’t a 4* in my opinion.
Ready Player Two has been out since November, 2020 and is available on Amazon and where ever books are sold.
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