So I’m breaking one of my own cardinal rules here today, never skipping ahead in a series. But as a perpetual player two when I was younger, I feel it’s my due to talk about “Ready Player Two” by Ernest Cline. Book two of the big mainstream litRPG Sci-Fi series that put that sub-genre on the map.
***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***
What I love about this book:
The ending—I’m not being flippant here—I really do love the end of this novel. This surprised me because spoiler for the “What I Don’t Love” section—I didn’t like this novel nearly as much as the first one. I wasn’t convinced that Cline would win me back into Wade Watts’s corner by the end. But, he did, mostly, and he delivered on a transcendental moment which I’m a sucker for, so I liked the ending because it had a real Ray Kurzweil feel to it for those familiar with his thoughts of the future.
Also, while I’m constantly going on about how nostalgia should be indulged in sparingly because I feel like it’s mental cotton candy—as a consummate hypocrite and a Tolkien fanboy, the chapters taking place on Arda still got me. I was right there for it when I realized we were taking a deep dive into “The Silmarillion.” So, Cline has still got that cotton candy machine going strong in this book, and there is probably something for everyone in this novel.
I feel I would be remiss to not point out that much like “Ready Player One,” the amount of research Cline had to do to pull off some of the genuinely arcane references to the popular culture of the past is nothing short of amazing. I feel good about myself when I take the time to study google maps when working on a story. Cline not only finds and references the most obscure details, like alternate endings, but he even incorporates alternative casting choices—that might have been—when making movie references that came out decades ago.
What I don’t love about this book:
Wade Watts, at the beginning of this novel through to about the middle, is borderline insufferable. What he made me think of was; this is precisely what I imagine following behind a depressed Mark Zuckerberg would be like—post billions, of course. It’s especially trying to summon my empathy for him when he’s clearly being a dickhead for no other reason than he’s sad and indulging in his worst immature impulses. And on some level—I get that’s Cline’s point. Watts has a lot of room to grow and redeem himself back in this novel, and in my opinion, he does—by the skin of his teeth.
Another thing I dislike in this novel is it—and this is difficult to write non-spoilerly—but it engages a bit in one of my least favorite literary devices, which I call the off-stage romantic reset button. Not an official term used by anyone other than myself—so far as I know—but basically, the off-stage romantic reset button answers—via cop-out—how can I get that romantic subplot back that adds all that will they, won’t they tension? Well, that’s simple. Just have things go to shit between them between stories. Now Cline does show you what happened—but you already know it will happen before that memory is examined, so the punch is pulled. No, I want to be punched in the face unexpectedly. Not telegraphed, I’m going to be punched in the face, so I can brace myself! …perhaps I should speak to a therapist about this.
Moving on, for me, the biggest disappointment was more ethereal in quality and harder to explain. It just felt like a lot of the magic of the first novel wasn’t there or was a cold copy. This brings me back to my frequent point about nostalgia—breathing second life into things, like “Ready Player One” did as its bread and butter, is far easier than breathing third life. Sure, we’re visiting different places in the Oasis. But there are frequent references to NPCs as digital ghosts of long-dead artists, and at one point, an antagonist even describes the Oasis—and I’m paraphrasing here—as one man’s mausoleum to bygone popular culture that the world collectively agreed to live in—and that stuck with me. It stuck with me because he was right, and reverence to the point of worship takes away from experiencing new things.
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***The Spoiler part of this review***
***Ye be warned to turn back now***
The quick and dirty synopsis:
The beginning of “Ready Player Two” kicks off almost
precisely where the first novel ended, only a week later and Wade Watts as
James Halliday’s heir, is a head honcho at Gregarious Simulation Systems, aka
Gregarious Games or GSS. Well, he and his three best friends, which includes his
new girlfriend, are all co-owners.
