Nine years after the success of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline returns to his smash-hit world with Ready Player Two. Picking up ten days after the events of the first book, Ready Player Two again follows main character Wade Watts as he grapples with his new life and an ominous foe.
So, let’s jump into the pros and cons of Cline’s latest release.
Put simply, if you enjoyed Cline’s signature pop culture trivia element of the first book, you’ll probably enjoy the sequel. Ready Player Two is packed full of more fandom tidbits—at times it feels like there are even more trivia related reference than the first book. Cline really leans into this element, playing off the nostalgia of his audience and utilising different bits of trivia to add to the world building, which is just as solid as in this novel as it is in the first.
Ready Player Two also follows the same formula as the first book, so if you are a reader who takes comfort in knowing roughly where the story is going, this one’s for you. A new major Easter egg hunt is revealed, which is again time sensitive. Also, if you loved the inclusion of the original gang in Ready Player One, Cline introduces it again with the inclusion of the L0w Five, a group of five new gunters (‘egg hunters’) who idolise the High Five.
There’s also the continued theme of inclusivity. Cline clearly shows his support for his LGBTQIA+ characters in this sequel. His inclusion of a new gender-fluid character called L0Hengrin, who’s avatar at times appears as a blonde teenager girl and at other times a young James Spader, and who prefers the pronouns she/her, is a positive step forward for including diverse characters in literature. This also assists in opening up positive discussions on the usage of people’s preferred pronouns, and normalises the act of listing and using one’s preferred pronouns on online platforms and in everyday life.
“Advancements in OASIS technology also enable Cline to explore his main character’s sexuality, with Wade coming to the conclusion that ‘Passion was passion and love was love, regardless of who the participants involved were, or what sort of body they were assigned at birth.” – Pg. 91.
Unfortunately, character work is an element that suffers in Ready Player Two. As Wade falls once more into his OASIS-based addiction, he becomes obsessive and sour, even going so far as to take advantage of special privileges that come with being Halliday’s heir—at one point, Wade violates someone’s personal information just to satisfy his own curiosity. His all-consuming hunger to complete the new quest leads him to alienate those around him, and his self-justification of his actions grows weary for the audience to read. Put plainly, all the character growth that Wade undertook in the first novel is undone within the first 100 pages of Ready Player Two, and is never completely recovered, rendering him an unlikeable main protagonist.
Cline’s writing also takes a turn for the worse in this novel. Filled with exposition dumps and endless passages of seemingly irrelevant trivia related content pulls the reader out of the story on multiple occasions. His heavy-handed use of positioning and manipulation of the reader also becomes tiresome, as Cline reverts to telling the reader how they should feel, rather than letting them come to their own conclusions. Alongside this, certain concepts introduced in Ready Player Two seem either underutilised or just plain bizarre—this is evident in one aspect of the new ONI technology, which, at one point, Wade explains can record someone giving birth and then allow that offspring to later relive the experience of giving birth to themselves. This particular passage could have benefited with some refinement.
All in all, this book is for established fans of Ernest Cline. It isn’t doing anything new, but for those that enjoyed Ready Player One, this follow-up puts you right back into the beloved pop culture-based world. There are some weird and wacky things along the way, some of which don’t always turn out well, but the positive support of LGBTQIA+ characters and the inclusion of new technological concepts assist in elevating the final product. And for those who did enjoy this novel, keep an eye out for the film adaptation, which the author has announced is in the works!
Ready Player One is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
An unexpected quest. Two worlds at stake. Are you ready?
Days after Oasis founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday’s vault, 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 will 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.
