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Ready Player One is getting a sequel, nine years after the first book was published, and it’s titled Ready Player Two.
Author Ernest Cline sowed the seeds of a sequel in 2017, and said that he was working with the movie adaptation of the book, which would then be released in 2018. “It would have been a different story if I had not grown up watching Steven [Spielberg’s] movies. So to get to not only collaborate with him to bring the first story to life but to bounce ideas off of him for the sequel is the most gratifying thing that's ever happened to me in my life,” said Cline three years ago.
The story is a sci-fi adventure about a treasure hunt in a virtual reality world with clues buried in ‘80s pop culture references. The person who solves the hidden game in the OASIS gets ownership of the entire virtual world, and protagonist Wade Owen Watts (who goes by Parzival in the OASIS) does everything he can to prevent this haven from falling into the wrong hands.
It’s a pretty polarising book, to be honest. Rebecca Serle of HuffPost said Ready Player One is “the grown-up’s Harry Potter,” with “nostalgia, trivia, adventure, romance, heart and, dare I say it, some very fascinating social commentary.” However, Nick Shager of The Daily Beast claimed the story “exemplifies everything wrong and repellent about modern nerd culture.” Eesh. Still, the book has been translated into 37 different languages, and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list.
The question of whether Ready Player Two will reach such stratospheric levels of success will be answered when the book is published on November 24. The movie attempted to integrate some more modern references as well as the easter eggs for ‘80s kids, and Cline might have been inclined to mention a Party Royale or a chicken dinner or two in the sequel.
