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micaelamariem's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Unfortunately, this sequel did not live up to the greatness that was Ready Player One. While I enjoyed learning new things and the plot is a great idea for a D&D campaign, I didn’t think the book was well written. I thought it focused too much on referencing outside pop culture sources, even more so than the first book, which left me occasionally feeling a little lost. There was also a heavy focus on worldbuilding still without much look at character development. The ending frustrated me because it felt like the characters still didn’t learn anything. And in general, I just found the story to be boring. I wanted to see more characterization!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Addiction, Blood, Alcohol, Murder, Classism, Grief, Vomit, Confinement, Death of parent, and Sexism
kaadee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
God, ok where do I start? I love Ready Player one so much that I have the book personally signed with my name and everything. That book helped me through such a dark period of my life that re-reading it is an emotional rollercoaster. I bought Ready Player Two a week after it came out and it has sat on my shelf ever since. I didn’t want to read it because the book holds such precious memories for me that if RP2 was bad I would be very VERY upset. The movie was a disaster so finding out there was a Ready player two… I didn’t know what to expect.
Reading this book is like finally getting an ice cream cone after years of not having one and then dropping it on the ground. I have a hate and love for this book that I can’t even begin to describe. I love the universe, I love the concept of the OASIS and absolutely love the concept of the ONI. After reading other peoples reviews, I have to agree that this is just Sword Art Online done worse. I enjoyed the artificial intelligence aspect, especially Kira but it was just done so badly. It wasn’t explained that well and I had to kinda stop sometimes because I didn’t know wtf I was reading. The collection of the seven shards was done so quickly that it just made all of it scrambled together and the only shard part I enjoyed was through the virtual school/wade’s treehouse.
I am not a huge fan of lord of the rings so all the references just flew over my head and tbh I think it would for anyone else who hasn’t watched the movies. At least the first book gave some explanations but this one not at all. So I was stuck just imagining random characters with little detail.
I enjoyed the ending, to be honest I cried because I felt like it was an ok enough ending for the characters I loved. It was ok. That’s it. It wasn’t fucking amazing like the last book and him winning the prize.. it was just meh.
When I thought the author couldn’t make Wade an even bigger asshole it turns out I was wrong. I hated Wade KINDA in the first book but I just chalked it up to the author not knowing how to make a good male character. Ok, that was fine, I could overlook the very large misogynistic and stalker tendencies but that was still a huge critic of the first book for me. Damn, the second book just made him EVEN WORSE!!!! I was definitely waiting for Wade to get SOS and just die because I hated how whiny he was. I still love Artemis and Aech, and even Shoto! They’re still amazing but Wade just became more of a terrible human.
Nolan Sorrento was huge part of the last book and his death was mediocre, he gets mentioned like twice, one of them being when he dies. For such an important character last book you’d think we’d spend more time understanding him or focusing on him. Nope, instead we get a stalker, sociopath Anorak who’s gone off the rails. I hated this character arc for Anorak because at least last book he was just a recluse. No no, this book he has no empathy, uploads peoples brains without permission and almost kills everybody. I hated every second of it and I wanted to skip through it just to keep going.
Skylar, the leader of the low-five was just put there for representation. That pissed me off to NO end when I realized she wasn’t going to be in the book more. The author just wanted to throw some terribly written diversity in and then call it a day. I wish they focused on her character more because she seemed like a total badass.
Anyway, I’ll probably read this book in a couple years and give a more updated review cause I’m heated right now. In my mind, this book isn’t canon and the high five just lived their billion dollar lives saving the world and being happy. First book should have been a stand alone.
Reading this book is like finally getting an ice cream cone after years of not having one and then dropping it on the ground. I have a hate and love for this book that I can’t even begin to describe. I love the universe, I love the concept of the OASIS and absolutely love the concept of the ONI. After reading other peoples reviews, I have to agree that this is just Sword Art Online done worse. I enjoyed the artificial intelligence aspect, especially Kira but it was just done so badly. It wasn’t explained that well and I had to kinda stop sometimes because I didn’t know wtf I was reading. The collection of the seven shards was done so quickly that it just made all of it scrambled together and the only shard part I enjoyed was through the virtual school/wade’s treehouse.
I am not a huge fan of lord of the rings so all the references just flew over my head and tbh I think it would for anyone else who hasn’t watched the movies. At least the first book gave some explanations but this one not at all. So I was stuck just imagining random characters with little detail.
I enjoyed the ending, to be honest I cried because I felt like it was an ok enough ending for the characters I loved. It was ok. That’s it. It wasn’t fucking amazing like the last book and him winning the prize.. it was just meh.
When I thought the author couldn’t make Wade an even bigger asshole it turns out I was wrong. I hated Wade KINDA in the first book but I just chalked it up to the author not knowing how to make a good male character. Ok, that was fine, I could overlook the very large misogynistic and stalker tendencies but that was still a huge critic of the first book for me. Damn, the second book just made him EVEN WORSE!!!! I was definitely waiting for Wade to get SOS and just die because I hated how whiny he was. I still love Artemis and Aech, and even Shoto! They’re still amazing but Wade just became more of a terrible human.
Nolan Sorrento was huge part of the last book and his death was mediocre, he gets mentioned like twice, one of them being when he dies. For such an important character last book you’d think we’d spend more time understanding him or focusing on him. Nope, instead we get a stalker, sociopath Anorak who’s gone off the rails. I hated this character arc for Anorak because at least last book he was just a recluse. No no, this book he has no empathy, uploads peoples brains without permission and almost kills everybody. I hated every second of it and I wanted to skip through it just to keep going.
Skylar, the leader of the low-five was just put there for representation. That pissed me off to NO end when I realized she wasn’t going to be in the book more. The author just wanted to throw some terribly written diversity in and then call it a day. I wish they focused on her character more because she seemed like a total badass.
Anyway, I’ll probably read this book in a couple years and give a more updated review cause I’m heated right now. In my mind, this book isn’t canon and the high five just lived their billion dollar lives saving the world and being happy. First book should have been a stand alone.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Classism, Stalking, and Toxic friendship
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