I loved Ready Player One, a futuristic dystopian novel featuring a society near collapse due to human negligence and climate disasters. The only escape from the daily disappointment of reality is the OASIS – a virtual reality landscape featuring anything you could dream of. This novel was hugely popular with both middle grade and YA readers, and ended in what I felt was a nice little package, all wrapped up to be a standalone novel.

Then I saw the audiobook for Ready Player Two…

If you read the first novel, I know what you’re thinking, all conflicts were resolved. How could they possibly carry out the original plotline? Short answer, they created a loophole. New technology for the OASIS leads to a new quest from Halliday, to find the seven shards of the siren’s soul. 

If you are a fan of the ‘80s, this book is a gem of nerdy trivia and nostalgia. To make it even geekier, the audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton (famous for his Star Trek role as Wesley Crusher) and was even promoted on Roblox, an online gaming platform, prior to release. 

Was it everything I dreamed it would be? No, not really, but it was a great fast-paced adventure with some familiar characters and was written for the big screen (I see huge potential for a second movie, rumor has it Spielberg was rooting for the second book). There’s also the possibility for a .5 novella from a sidequest that is of utmost importance to the novel, but gets no actual mention in the story. New characters, new series perhaps?

Cline, E. (2020). Ready player two. Ballantine Books.

written by Mrs. Hiltner