Lightning…. sometimes… can strike twice… sometimes. ~Sheila

Ready Player Two is the follow up to one of the most GUSH WORTHY books I have ever discussed, reviewed and passed on to others. I originally read Ready Player One in 2011 and was HOOKED – 80’s culture, gaming concept, virtual world…. what’s not to love and I was all about it… ALL OF IT. I have listened to this book on audio more times then I care to admit and have reviewed it three times… gushing every single time.

Ready Player Two is based on the same original concept with the same protagonist (YAY!!!) and another quest put before them (kind-of-yay), once again the High Five Gang gets together to save the world from evil all the time having a good solid hint of what is too much virtual reality and the importance of balance. Three years have passed since Wade won the first quest. (Well, what? That’s not a spoiler! The book has been out for 9 years… my spoiler alert rule holds for 7 :D)
A few things have changed for the group and a little distance has grown between them – some more than others.

My thoughts…
A long time ago I remember having a discussion with my son Justin when there were rumors of another Harry Potter books coming out after the series had ended. I remember being absolutely giddy about the possibility of a revisit.. a continuation of sorts in familiar territory. My son, was against it. Justin felt that bringing back something that was so well done – and trying to add to it could be disastrous. It could never live up the the hype we had built up in our minds.

This… is a little like that.

I listened to this on audio because Wil Wheaton is an AMAZING narrator and adds so much to the book as he did with the first book. As the synopsis begin to unfold, I admit I found myself a bit disappointed even though I had no preconception of what this book would be about. (I really wanted that lightning to strike twice).
As the book continued, I warmed up to it. Where ready Player One focuses on a lot of great 80’s references, Ready Player Two put more focus on the 90’s. I found myself engrossed in stats about Prince, a lot of 90s music that caused me to pull them up on Spotify so I could fully emerge in these great references. Gaming, Narnia, A fun Hogwarts reference and more… it was well worth the listen.

I have not read any other reviews on this book at this point as I really wanted this to be my own opinion and not influenced by what someone else said although, I am super curious what others are taking away from this. My biggest disappointment was I felt that each step of the quest was solved way too simply and did not have the sense of great battle that I felt during the first book. Nothing… was all that hard.

Was that just me?

Overall – still a good listen/read. Whil Wheaton again knocks it out of the ballpark. Taking a ride in the Little Red Corvette? Narnia references? Sonic the Hedgehog? Game battles? Revisiting the characters? Totally worth it. Was it as good as the first one? No. Will I listen to it again? Probably. At least one more walk through as it has been a busy week and I listened to this in pieces between work and Family and Holiday happenings…

If there was a third book would I be in? Probably. While I have no idea where they go from here.. I would still be curious.

If you have read/listened to this I would love to hear how you felt it stacked up.