Summary: After winning nearly unimaginable wealth and power at the end of the last book, things do not really go that well, that is until there is another quest.
I really enjoyed Ready Player One. I liked all the references to cultural history. I enjoyed the story, the light romance, the YA feel. But I just never got around to reading this second book. I bought a kindle version years ago. I finally started it this summer when the audiobook was buy one get one free with a book I wanted and nothing else to get free that I wanted other than this. I went in with very low expectations. Just looking at the star ratings of my Goodreads friends made me keep those expectations low. A few people liked it, but most were in the 1 to 3 range.
I am not going to give away many spoilers, but I do think this had more depth than I expected. The set up to the second book is long and I think while I understand that complaint, it was a necessary part of the story. Wade at the end of the first book is barely out of his teens, but he just won a company that is worth billions. He was a likable kid when he had nothing. But when he had fame, power and resources, he quickly becomes unlikable, not just to the reader, but to everyone around him. I understand why people didn’t like that choice, but I think it does make sense to the story arc.
When Wade is at his best, he is on a quest. He works with his friends, and they can accomplish the impossible together. But as an individual trying to make his way in the world, he is awful. He doesn’t have the skills to run a trillion dollar company. He doesn’t have the ethical development to understand the implications of new technology. He doesn’t have the emotional and relational development to be attractive to Samantha (the love interest in the first book.) I appreciate that this book dropped some of the YA feel. The protagonist isn’t a late teen any longer and the hedonistic approach to life that is part of the story line requires at least touching on the world of hedonism.
So the long intro made sense to me even as I understand why so many didn’t like it. But the main focus is the quest. The quest is why I read books like this. I enjoy the cultural exploration of John Hughes movies and Prince music. It isn’t particularly deep, it is supposed to be fun. But along the way I did think that the grappling with weaknesses and outright harm in our heroes to have a greater depth in the story line than I expected from the book.
I did not love the ending. I think the whole book raised questions about AI, life in a virtual world, the problems with a lack of attention to human interactions and then the ending just seems to forget all of the questions raised earlier and embraced technological solution as a good.
I don’t really know how to evaluate the book. I understand why many didn’t like the parts they didn’t like. I thought it was unexpected to get good reflections on the problems of heroes and those who are really great in one area of life and really awful in other areas of life. I appreciated, in a sci-fi book, the warnings about rejection of human interactions and the problems of looking to technology to solve all our problems. But I also did thought the ending really ruined the earlier thoughtful parts. So….maybe read it with low expectations.
Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook