Audiobook Review – Ready Player Two (Ready Player One, Book 2) by Ernest Cline, Narrated by Wil Wheaton (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 13 hours and 46 minutes
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: November 24, 2020
ASIN : B08C7DQWRC
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Ready Player One series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.

Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS 1,000 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’ll 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.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in the Ready Player One series. I got this as an audiobook through Audible.com.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): The audiobook quality was great, I love the way Wheaton reads audiobooks. This overall book rating is bumped up from 2 stars to 3 stars because my family listened to this on audiobook and we all just really enjoyed Wil Wheaton’s narration of the story.

Story (3/5): I absolutely adored Ready Player One, so I approached this book cautiously…it’s always hard to read a follow up book to a book that you love so much. Ultimately this book was very disappointing; it lacked the charm, fun, and fast-pace of the first book. The beginning of the book alternates between being a huge info dump and listening to Wade whine about what a mess he’s made of his life. We finally get more into quest mode about 25% in ,when a new Quest for the Seven Shards is introduced. I liked the premise of the ONI, which allows users a full sensory experience in the OASIS.

Characters (3/5): We get to meet some fun new characters that I wish had gotten more page space. I am hoping there is a future story featuring the Low 5. Way too much time is spent on Wade’s whininess. All of the original characters feel kind of tired and overdone. I also had some major issues with the turn Sam and Wade’s relationship takes at the end, it felt really contrived.

Setting (3/5): Rather than focusing on a lot of cool 80’s video game trivia this book focuses more on pop culture 80’s aspects. A huge portion of the quest takes place on a John Hughes world, I have never seen a John Hughes movie and don’t care to…I got really really bored with how long this section was…it just went on forever. Another huge portion of the quest takes place in a Prince world (the singer Prince), I could follow these references a bit better since I am a Minnesota resident but I am not a huge Prince fan either. We also get to do part of the quest on a Middle Earth world which I loved, I wish that part had been longer.

Writing Style (2/5): The whole premise behind this book is interesting but, as mentioned above, it takes a long amount of time for the story to get going. The book wraps up in a predictable way and towards the end I just wanted it to…well…end! There’s a “twist” at the end that wasn’t much of a twist. This was long and boring and such a disappointment to me.

My Summary (3/5): Overall there were a few small things I liked but mostly things I didn’t like and found annoying. If there is a book featuring the Low 5 I might pick it up, but I was pretty thoroughly disappointed in this book and am going steer clear of Cline for a bit here. If you haven’t read this book, I would recommend skipping it..bask in the amazing glow that is “Ready Player One” and pretend “Ready Player Two” didn’t happen.