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Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

Sci-fi

Ready Player Two

by Ernest Cline

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Quick take

The long-awaited sequel to Ready Player One is here.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Well_Known

    Famous author

  • Illustrated icon, Buzzy

    Buzzy

  • Illustrated icon, Quest

    Quest

  • Illustrated icon, Second_in_Series

    Second in series

Synopsis

Days after Oasis founder James Halliday's contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday's vault, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the Oasis a thousand 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 will 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.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Ready Player Two.

Ready Player Two

Cutscene

After I won Halliday’s contest, I remained offline for nine straight days—a new personal record.

When I finally logged back in to my OASIS account, I was sitting in my new corner office on the top floor of the GSS skyscraper in downtown Columbus, Ohio, preparing to start my gig as one of the company’s new owners. The other three were still scattered across the globe: Shoto had flown back home to Japan to take over operations at GSS’s Hokkaido division. Aech was enjoying an extended vacation in Senegal, a country she’d dreamed of visiting her whole life, because her ancestors had come from there. And Samantha had flown back to Vancouver to pack up her belongings and say goodbye to her grandmother, Evelyn. She wasn’t due to arrive here in Columbus for another four days, which seemed like an eternity. I needed to distract myself until our reunion, so I decided to log back in to the OASIS and try out a few more of the superuser abilities my avatar now possessed.

I climbed into my brand-new top-of-the-line OASIS immersion rig, a Habashaw OIR-9400, then put on my visor and haptic gloves and initiated the login sequence. My avatar reappeared where I’d last logged out, on the planet Chthonia, standing outside the gates of Castle Anorak. As I’d anticipated, there were thousands of other avatars already gathered there, all waiting patiently for me to make an appearance. According to the newsfeed headlines, some of them had been camped out there all week—ever since I’d resurrected them in the aftermath of our epic battle against the Sixers.

In my first official act as one of GSS’s new owners, just a few hours after the fight ended, I’d authorized our admins to restore all the items, credits, and power levels those heroic users had lost, along with their avatars. I thought it was the least we could do to repay them for their help, and Samantha, Aech, and Shoto had agreed. It was the first decision we’d voted on as the company’s new co-owners.

As soon as the avatars in my vicinity spotted me, they began to run in my direction, closing in on me from all sides at once. To avoid getting mobbed, I teleported inside the castle, into Anorak’s study—a room in the highest tower that I alone could enter, thanks to the Robes of Anorak I now wore. The obsidian-black garment endowed my avatar with the godlike powers Halliday’s own avatar had once possessed.

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Why I love it

I've always felt pretty secure in my nerdy identity, but even I would not want to face off against Ernest Cline in pop culture trivia. But despite my limited knowledge of obscure video games and John Hughes movies, I found myself tearing through Ready Player Two at warp speed, gleefully geeking out on the immersive worlds of iconic 20th-century classics.

After becoming the heir to game maker James Halliday’s vast estate, Wade Watts finds that fame and wealth have, shockingly, not solved all his problems. As his personal relationships begin to crumble, Wade discovers a revolutionary new technology that Halliday left behind, a device that makes the alluring escapism of the digital world more potent—and more dangerous—than ever.

As with its predecessor, Ready Player Two is filled with heart and action and ‘80s references galore. Best of all, you don’t need to be a Tolkien or D&D fanatic to enjoy the novel’s faceted characters, thrilling quest narrative, or focus on human resilience. You don’t need to be a nerd to fall in love with the world Ernest Cline has built—but it certainly helps.

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Sci-fi
View all
Upgrade
Hum
The Ministry of Time
Severance
The End of October
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
Dark Matter
Ready Player Two
Recursion
We Could Be Heroes
The Municipalists
Camp Zero
Golden State
Early Riser