Ready Player Two

So I read this because a friend of mine's wife had a baby, and one thing to keep him entertained while he was up at odd hours was me reading this book and sending him summaries and reactions. (We both loathed Ready Player One, so it seemed fitting.)

This book. I genuinely feel bad for Cline and I feel like he doesn't have support. Because he clearly took a lot of the criticism from book one and tried to either fix it or write a better book. Because you see the pieces. However, overwhelmingly, the book fails in so many ways.

It still has the infuriating pop culture details that are in no way significant to the story and therefore you're like “Why does it matter to me that he's wearing this certain Jordan shoe?” (The answer is nostalgia but like, with nothing to make it magical. Only the name is supposed to scratch that itch.)

It sort of gets better in the middle, if not a bit slow, but then the ending is not only unsatisfying its cringeworthy because as it tries to be hopeful, it's actually horrifying cyber hellscape.