Ready Player 2 - Ernest Cline
Ready Player 2 is the sequel to the world loved Ready Player 1. In this story, we follow Wade Watts through the years after he's won Anorak's Quest.
What It's About
Ready Player 2 is the sequel to the world loved Ready Player 1. In this story, we follow Wade Watts through the years after he's won Anorak's Quest. We travel all over the Oasis and our journey even takes us into the real world. All your favorite characters are here along with a few new faces.
Thoughts
I'm giving this an overall 4 stars. There are a ton of elements that feel the exact same. It's not until the final few chapters that things take an interesting turn. The plot itself, in terms of sci-fi, has been told a thousand different times by different authors. I'm not trying to spoil anything here, but don't expect anything revolutionary.
What I Liked About It
Like RP1, Ernest packs a ton of fun, nostalgic references throughout. This heavily grounds the book in the real world, while based decades in the future.
It's action packed, not too many slow parts.
Ernest does a great job in describing the environment and objects within it.
What I Didn't Like About It
The storytelling is decent. I did get hints of what I'd call Hollywood Habits, these are the typical ways in which we'd tell a story through a movie. Honestly, I think Ernest wrote this with a movie in mind. Whether you think that is good or bad is up to you, but there are definitely waves of Hollywood Habits.
If we look at a book like Harry Potter, some of those books were written while the movies were produced. So, if one author can do it and create the legacy that became Harry Potter, there is nothing to say Ernest couldn't do it as well.
Summary
If you liked Ready Player 1, this book is definitely worth the read. You’ll really want to go into this with slightly lower expectations. Just like sequels in other books and movies, this one isn’t going to have the same punch. With that, it was worth the read and a decent second part to this story.