Monday, January 11, 2021

Ready Player Two

Ready Player Two

by Ernest Cline

Ballantine Books, 2020. 377 pages. Fiction

Wade Watts won the greatest video game ever created. For a few days, he has time to bask in the glory of his hard-earned wealth and fame. But then a new piece of technology is discovered in the vaults of Gregarious Games Inc. that could once again change life as he knows it. This new tech is wildly popular, but also puts people at the mercy of virtual reality. Almost immediately a new adversary takes over the Oasis and Wade is once again called upon to save humanity.

This is a fun sequel to the super popular Ready Player One. There are new bad guys to outsmart, new clues to find and decipher, and a whole new world to explore. It is interesting to see how the top four, Wade, Ache, Art3mis, and Shoto all respond to having wealth beyond reasoning. Art3mis, Samantha, is still determined to help the troubled world outside the Oasis. Shoto and Ache become interested in the business side of Gregarious Games, but Wade is kind of lost.  He alienates those most important to him and must learn how to deal with people in real life, not just in virtual reality. There is enough new content about the characters that this book is worth the read, but fans of Cline may feel like they have been through this all before. This book will appeal to those searching for a book with adventure, interpersonal relationships, and mind-bending views of reality. 

AGP

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