Rando didn't pick this one for me. I jumped it up the queue because I have the school library's copy and I know there are at least three teens waiting for a shot at it. I didn't feel like I should wait for it to come up on the roll of the dice. This way I can hand it in on Monday when I step foot on campus.
When I encountered this sequel to Ready Player One, I had a "No way" kind of reaction. While the future of the original book is an incredible rich setting where I could see any number of possible spin off narratives being set, a true sequel with the same characters just seemed impossible. All the loose ends of the original narrative seemed tied up in a meaningful and satisfying way. Even so, I've been salivating to crack the spine ever since I swiped from the school library.
Actually, I have a bit of a secret connected to this series. I first tried to read Ready Player One the year it came out and I simply couldn't get into it. I don't know if it was my mood at the time or what, but I tried reading it at least three times and ended up abandoning it each time. Of course I couldn't admit that to my students who were all pestering me nonstop to read the thing. There was a lot of cryptic smiling and nodding that year. I'm not sure why I couldn't just admit it to them, except to say that I really didn't want to let them down. It wasn't until six years later in 2017 that I actually managed a successful read and discovered what all the fuss was about.
Cline's vision of the future is bleak. The Earth is suffocating under the weight of a human population grown past the ability of our little rock to sustain. The one glimmer of positivity is the online worlds of the OASIS which is a kind of full dive virtual reality environment with dozens of worlds and games embedded into it. Wade Watts, aka Parzival, is the awkward geeky protagonist who wins the fantastic prize of inheriting the fortune of the OASIS creator in the first book. It's a great adventure story that reads like an homage to the foundations of gaming and 80s pop culture.
Ready Player Two opens just nine days after the end of the first book where Watts discovers a new kind of gaming rig that allows the user to actually experience the online world with all five senses. The downside is a temporary but complete division from the physical body leaving it defenseless and resulting in horrific brain damage if the device is improperly removed or if contiguous connection to OASIS extends past 12 hours. Despite the dangers, launching this product revolutionizes the experience and becomes wildly popular. It also triggers a new cryptic quest seeded in the system before the creator's death. Unfortunately, it also triggers a malevolent AI of the OASIS creator who has some. . . demands.
So yes, this is another adventure quest fraught with real world consequences just like the first book. I say that, but despite this being a very similar narrative in many ways, I think it's a stronger book overall. The characters in the first book were a little two dimensional which didn't matter because it was a fast paced adventure. Watts, who is sort of a everyman representation of the gamer type in both the positive and negative ways, somehow manages to acquire and maintain relationships with a diverse group of people who for the most part seem to ignore his tendency to say 'the wrong thing' on a regular basis. Ready Player Two is still a fast paced adventure but this time our protagonist goes through a much more complete and satisfying development arc. Watts/Parzival is a socially awkward geek who is handed everything he thinks he wants only to screw it all up within the first 20 pages because, let's face it, he's an immature idiot. Over the course of the adventure Watts comes to terms with his flaws and mistakes and puts in a lot of work to become a better person and make amends.
It's almost too bad that I can't tell people to just skip the first book and start with Ready Player Two but alas, reading the first book is truly necessary to understand all the ways that Watts messes up his life. At least it's not exactly a hardship.
Postscript: I cheated... a little. I started Ready Player Two on December 29th and finished it late on the 31st. I'm still counting it as my first book of 2022 because that's what I read while I waited for the new year to roll in. Rando chose A Stitch In Time by Kelly Armstrong as my next read.
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