The mechanics of the plot require an awful lot of table-setting, so the over-long first act of the novel feels kind of pointless but also very rushed. This would be forgivable if it were fun to read but, unfortunately, it's not. Wade even breaks up with his new girlfriend Samantha just so they can get back together as part of the resolution. Sorrento is back as a primary antagonist. Instead, Wade gets Metroided back to zero so he can start over in yet another fetch quest organized once again by the late Halliday, but this time there are seven Maguffins to find instead of six, and he only has twelve hours to complete it, and there are millions of lives at stake if he fails. And, indeed, the novel starts going that direction a little bit with Wade becoming the evil corporation he overthrew in RP1, but then it doesn't actually do anything with that. So where does a sequel go from there? I would think there are interesting questions to be asked about what it means to be all-powerful in an artificial world, and how that power might be corrosive. At the end of that book, the protagonist Wade is basically a god in the world of the Oasis, having ascended to the role that Oasis-creator James Halliday had originally taken for himself. I loved Ready Player One. I fully acknowledge that the criticisms around representation are 100% merited, and yet I still had a great time reading it. It has some enjoyable moments and it ticks off all the boxes of what you would expect in a sequel-same characters, same setting, similar story and tone, higher stakes, bigger and broader obstacles, that kind of thing-and yet it mostly doesn't work. Why I Hate It.This book is kind of a fascinating failure. Overview: A clumsy retread of Ready Player One that wants to make damned sure we know its author isn't actually a bigot.

Ready player two book