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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
kelly_e's review
adventurous
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? Yes
2.75
Title: Ready Player Two
Author: Ernest Cline
Series: Ready Player One #2
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 2.75
Pub Date: November 24, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
Imaginative • Adventurous • Disappointing
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday's contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.
Hidden within Halliday's vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous--and addictive--than even Wade dreamed possible.
With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest--a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize.
And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who'll kill millions to get what he wants.
Wade's life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.
💭 T H O U G H T S
I absolutely (and surprisingly) loved Ready Player One, so I was excited when I found out there would be a sequel. Unfortunately, this one didn't have the same impact as the first one did.
Some of the ideas and quests were interesting, yet as the story progressed I found it harder and harder to stay invested in what was happening, which was the opposite in book one. Oddly, as the stakes got higher, I found myself caring less. It's quite possible that there's just too much content that I didn't know about or relate to. Wade's character arc shows a lot of development from start to finish, something we didn't get in book one. The focus on a group of friends working together to solve the quests was appreciated.
Ready Player One is one of those books that would have been better off left as a stand-alone. I can understand some readers are really going to be drawn into it if they have an interest in all of the pop culture references. Again, I'd highly recommend the audio narrated by Wil Wheaton as he does a fantastic job.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• 80/90s babies
• science fiction fans
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Human beings were never meant to participate in a worldwide social network comprised of billions of people. We were designed by evolution to be hunter-gatherers, with the mental capacity to interact and socialize with the other members of our tribe—a tribe made up of a few hundred other people at most. Interacting with thousands or even millions of other people on a daily basis was way too much for our ape-descended melons to handle. That was why social media had been gradually driving the entire population of the world insane since it emerged back around the turn of the century."
Author: Ernest Cline
Series: Ready Player One #2
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 2.75
Pub Date: November 24, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
Imaginative • Adventurous • Disappointing
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday's contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.
Hidden within Halliday's vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous--and addictive--than even Wade dreamed possible.
With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest--a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize.
And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who'll kill millions to get what he wants.
Wade's life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.
💭 T H O U G H T S
I absolutely (and surprisingly) loved Ready Player One, so I was excited when I found out there would be a sequel. Unfortunately, this one didn't have the same impact as the first one did.
Some of the ideas and quests were interesting, yet as the story progressed I found it harder and harder to stay invested in what was happening, which was the opposite in book one. Oddly, as the stakes got higher, I found myself caring less. It's quite possible that there's just too much content that I didn't know about or relate to. Wade's character arc shows a lot of development from start to finish, something we didn't get in book one. The focus on a group of friends working together to solve the quests was appreciated.
Ready Player One is one of those books that would have been better off left as a stand-alone. I can understand some readers are really going to be drawn into it if they have an interest in all of the pop culture references. Again, I'd highly recommend the audio narrated by Wil Wheaton as he does a fantastic job.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• 80/90s babies
• science fiction fans
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Human beings were never meant to participate in a worldwide social network comprised of billions of people. We were designed by evolution to be hunter-gatherers, with the mental capacity to interact and socialize with the other members of our tribe—a tribe made up of a few hundred other people at most. Interacting with thousands or even millions of other people on a daily basis was way too much for our ape-descended melons to handle. That was why social media had been gradually driving the entire population of the world insane since it emerged back around the turn of the century."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Mental illness, Confinement, Drug use, Grief, Addiction, Kidnapping, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, and Stalking
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Ableism, Cursing, and Body shaming
overdose_nem_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
As a massive fan of Ready Player One I was a bit reluctant to read this book as I heard it wasn't as good as the first one. That's true but it was still a good book, especially the ending which was fast paced and exciting.
Somethings did frustrate me a bit about this book:
For over 50 pages at the beginning of the book, Aech and Shoto were called by their avatar's name whereas Art3mis was always referred to as Samantha. This felt a bit frustrating as following on from the first book, she was always known as Art3mis so Samantha didn't seem to fit in with the other two. Then it was just slipped in that Aech and Shoto had legally changed their names to their avatar's name so that explained that but it felt like it had been realised too late and then they had to find a way to solve that
There was also a trans character in the book. It seemed very unnecessary and almost like Cline was showing that he isn't transphobic like a certain passage in Ready Player One would suggest he is. The trans character features quite a bit towards the beginning of the second half of the book but her ending is disappointing as it is just concluded in a sentence. The set up of the "Low Five" was really interesting but nothing was really done with it. I guess that is because Wade didn't see that part of the quest but it is still a route that would have been nice to explore with these new characters.
Somethings did frustrate me a bit about this book:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Grief, and Addiction
naychapman's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A sequel to Ready Player One, this book is equally full of adventure and pop culture references.
It takes place a few days after RPO left off. I found it very slow to start and it wasn’t until about Chapter 8 that it began taking off. Very different from Book One, which had a much better pace of events. It does still have a lot of mystery and suspense, and I would love to see what might be done with it if it were taken up as a movie. It might be that I was listening to the audiobook version, but it was difficult to follow the fighting sequences at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Cursing
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
ishouldbereading's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Death
Moderate: Blood, Violence, Addiction, Torture, and Kidnapping
Minor: Stalking, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
chellyfish's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction
theleppy's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
** spoiler alert ** Warning: I'm going to flirt the spoiler line here but it's mostly without spoilers.
Off the top I did a combination of listening to the audio book version and reading the physical copy. I mention this mostly because Wil Wheaton is fantastic. This is the 3rd book read by him that I have experienced and he lends a lot to it. He's enthusiastic or earnest when appropriate which adds a layer of depth. I have a lot of respect (and some fangirl like) for him and he helped me read through some of the more...difficult/ frustrating sections of this book.
This book has a lot of problems that I find frustrating. I loved the first book enough to listen to/read it 4 times. It's an interesting alternate future with a lot of interesting ideas it explores and that carries over here. The first book's ending was pretty perfect though so this book wasn't necessary imo.
The first problem this book has is that it's front loaded with way too much information dumped on the reader. Half of which seems unnecessary and/or obviously setup to be broken rules. Most of this could have been shortened, broken to small pieces and placed later in the book for better effect and pacing.
In the first book I found the nerd-out tangents were largely interesting and fairly controlled. Here they go on and on and on and become boring and lose meaning. This makes me sad honestly because if they ended a sentence or paragraph sooner I would have enjoyed these parts!
The "formula" of the quest being repeated isn't an issue in my opinion. It works and I'm not going to knock it but I would have liked to have time to mull over the clues more like in the 1st novel. Part of the excitement was trying to unravel it along with Wade. There is a time crunch that stops this from happening which is a shame.
Wade crosses a few lines that made me pretty mad at him and he admits he's wrong but I think the line crossing wasn't necessary and only harmed my opinion of him. He doesn't face enough consequences for it either. He invades people's privacy in order to...do nothing that couldn't have been figured out in a better way.
I was disappointed most of the other characters barely get time to shine this time around. Shoto is probably done the most dirty. He's shunted to the background like the author didn't know what to do with him. Aech and Art3mis get some characterization but I wish there was more. Art3mis is part of the heart of this story and I find her the most likable alongside Og and Kira who we do get to learn more about.
I feel like this book is trying to juggle too many big topics and the author should have dropped a few of them. Sexual experimentation, racisim, and transgender being least important to the plot and the mentions felt liked they were a bit forced and hindered the flow of the book. Aech complaining about how white 80s movies are when a literal clock is ticking is frustrating and isn't helping that discussion (it's a valid argument but there isn't room for it to be explored here). Additionally Wade invading the transgender character's privacy to go "we are inclusive!! Here is a cool Trans chara!!" Is gross. Let them exist and elude to it instead. The impact of Aech's reveal in the first book was so good and makes this all that much worse here. I don't think the author intended to be gross about it and he tried at least. Especially since I feel he did right by Kira and Art3mis. There is a running theme carried from the first book about sexism causing women's roles in history to be down played or even erased. They should have hammered it home a smidge more at the end though but again, too many big topics are covered to go deeper on nearly all of them.
Honestly though I think the ending redeemed this book (mostly). I got misty eyed over parts of the ending. I didn't expect all of what happened and was pleasantly surprised by a few things. The book has good parts it's just clunky. After I struggled through the first 100ish pages tit gained enough momentum that I burned through the rest in less than 2 days.
For fans of the first book hungry for more (even though it had a perfect ending) and willing to hold out for the ending.
3.5 stars
Off the top I did a combination of listening to the audio book version and reading the physical copy. I mention this mostly because Wil Wheaton is fantastic. This is the 3rd book read by him that I have experienced and he lends a lot to it. He's enthusiastic or earnest when appropriate which adds a layer of depth. I have a lot of respect (and some fangirl like) for him and he helped me read through some of the more...difficult/ frustrating sections of this book.
This book has a lot of problems that I find frustrating. I loved the first book enough to listen to/read it 4 times. It's an interesting alternate future with a lot of interesting ideas it explores and that carries over here. The first book's ending was pretty perfect though so this book wasn't necessary imo.
The first problem this book has is that it's front loaded with way too much information dumped on the reader. Half of which seems unnecessary and/or obviously setup to be broken rules. Most of this could have been shortened, broken to small pieces and placed later in the book for better effect and pacing.
In the first book I found the nerd-out tangents were largely interesting and fairly controlled. Here they go on and on and on and become boring and lose meaning. This makes me sad honestly because if they ended a sentence or paragraph sooner I would have enjoyed these parts!
The "formula" of the quest being repeated isn't an issue in my opinion. It works and I'm not going to knock it but I would have liked to have time to mull over the clues more like in the 1st novel. Part of the excitement was trying to unravel it along with Wade. There is a time crunch that stops this from happening which is a shame.
Wade crosses a few lines that made me pretty mad at him and he admits he's wrong but I think the line crossing wasn't necessary and only harmed my opinion of him. He doesn't face enough consequences for it either. He invades people's privacy in order to...do nothing that couldn't have been figured out in a better way.
I was disappointed most of the other characters barely get time to shine this time around. Shoto is probably done the most dirty. He's shunted to the background like the author didn't know what to do with him. Aech and Art3mis get some characterization but I wish there was more. Art3mis is part of the heart of this story and I find her the most likable alongside Og and Kira who we do get to learn more about.
I feel like this book is trying to juggle too many big topics and the author should have dropped a few of them. Sexual experimentation, racisim, and transgender being least important to the plot and the mentions felt liked they were a bit forced and hindered the flow of the book. Aech complaining about how white 80s movies are when a literal clock is ticking is frustrating and isn't helping that discussion (it's a valid argument but there isn't room for it to be explored here). Additionally Wade invading the transgender character's privacy to go "we are inclusive!! Here is a cool Trans chara!!" Is gross. Let them exist and elude to it instead. The impact of Aech's reveal in the first book was so good and makes this all that much worse here. I don't think the author intended to be gross about it and he tried at least. Especially since I feel he did right by Kira and Art3mis. There is a running theme carried from the first book about sexism causing women's roles in history to be down played or even erased. They should have hammered it home a smidge more at the end though but again, too many big topics are covered to go deeper on nearly all of them.
Honestly though I think the ending redeemed this book (mostly). I got misty eyed over parts of the ending. I didn't expect all of what happened and was pleasantly surprised by a few things. The book has good parts it's just clunky. After I struggled through the first 100ish pages tit gained enough momentum that I burned through the rest in less than 2 days.
For fans of the first book hungry for more (even though it had a perfect ending) and willing to hold out for the ending.
3.5 stars
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Cursing, Death, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship
sunsetcity's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Wow I did not like this. I feel like waaaay too much was stuffed into such a short books. This book had 7 quests, all of which were solved without a lot of actual puzzle solving as people just magically knew the answer. The characters didn't really grow either, and Aech and Shoto were didn't develop at all. My biggest problem with this one was just how much this book relied on nostalgia. I do not know much about 80s tv and video games, but I still really enjoyed the first book because the quests and characters were so interesting. This one spent a lot of time on the nostalgia factor and I was just bored and confused.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Medical content
kaylamoran's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I was worried about this book when I heard about it, because I felt like Ready Player One was one of those books that should remain a standalone. After reading this, I think I was right.
Ready Player One was, in my opinion, better than this book in every single way. It was paced better, the story was more exciting, more happened (this one felt repetitive, like it was the same thing over and over with very little variety). It was funnier, and the characters had more personality. There weren't many surprise twists and big reveals. All in all, I'm left feeling disappointed.
I didn't hate this by any means. I still give it 3 stars. But, given that the first book was much better, and Cline had the better part of a decade to write this, I had hoped for a lot better.
Ready Player One was, in my opinion, better than this book in every single way. It was paced better, the story was more exciting, more happened (this one felt repetitive, like it was the same thing over and over with very little variety). It was funnier, and the characters had more personality. There weren't many surprise twists and big reveals. All in all, I'm left feeling disappointed.
I didn't hate this by any means. I still give it 3 stars. But, given that the first book was much better, and Cline had the better part of a decade to write this, I had hoped for a lot better.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Violence, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping
Minor: Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Terminal illness
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