Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
Tiny Overview
Wade Watts unlocks the new stage of the OASIS - the ONI. With this new technology, people are able to stick their brains into the machine and directly feel, taste and hear everything, as if they were really there. Using this, Wade and the rest of the High Five unlock the last easter egg that was left by Halliday.
Themes:
- Sci-Fi
- Cli-Fi
- Fantasy
- Adventure
- Young Adult
- Adventure
- Class
- Dystopia
- Friendship
- Identity
- Inequality
Context
My Waffling
I have to say that I agree with Samantha (Art3mis) on this one. I will not plug my head into a machine.
I loved that we learnt more about Halliday, Og, and Kira. I loved how we learnt more about their lives, how they interacted and what actually happened.
This books pace was different from it's predecessor, as instead of being set over a couple of years everything happened in around 12 hours. This led to no struggling, no pondering, no figuring anything out. It seemed as if all the clues were curated to fit some niche interest that at least one of them had. I don't know if it is because I had a gap in between books, but these interests didn't really seem to flow. It felt like the interests were given to them there in that moment to be convenient. There was no time for faffing.
There was hardly any world building, I am guessing it is due to the reader knowing everything from the previous book.
Similar to Spacehopper, there was a lot of explaining, justification, repeat. All the clues were the same but in a new location. This meant that there was even less character development for lil ol Wade and he's still a weirdo. Samantha is way too good for him. The rest of the cast is genuinely doing things with their lives, while he rots away - at least he has eyebrows this time. He's finally like his hero, sexist, weird and alone.
I read it, had to force my way through the Prince battle. It seemed that not even Cline knew what was going on there, there was a lot of confusion and the word 'Prince' was mentioned too many times. I struggled a bit with the Lord of the Rings bit, but I think that was all on me. I have tried to get into it, but I just can't wrap my head around it. It is a big part of my childhood, as it was always on growing up and it makes me sad that I can't understand it.
In the beginning we get introduced to a new set of characters, who get nicknamed the 'L0w Five'. They did nothing. They got introduced, started the whole story, eventually met with the rest of the cast, and then got sent off on a quest that ended the book. They did a lot of heavy lifting, especially for characters we only meet twice. L0hengrin had two genuine interactions, and the rest of her mates only had one. Even then, it was when Wade was listening in.
The ending of the book was strange. With it ending on a positive AI note. Big no from me. I don't think he will be so happy about AI and treating them as people when they take over writing. I think I was generous with my rating.
3/5
