Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline -> Starting February 15th, 2021

[Alaina]

An unexpected quest. Two worlds at stake. Are you ready?

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.

[Alaina]

Starting this now!

[Alaina]

30%: (view spoiler)[Yikes, a lot is happening so far. I'm not sure what's going on with Wade right now but he needs to make amends and sort of open his eyes as to what is happening.. (hide spoiler)]

[Alaina]

60%: (view spoiler)[I think it's kind of interesting that they are diving into movies that I know lol. Or seeing new characters and such. Which is making the quests enjoyable but at the same time.. I'm just like.. what's next? (hide spoiler)]

[Alaina]

90%: (view spoiler)[Lmao the prince land sounds awesome. (hide spoiler)]

[Alaina]

100%: (view spoiler)[Okay that was a cute ending. I'm glad everyone was revived and stuff but I'm not sure why a sequel needed to be made? It was a cute book though. (hide spoiler)]

[Ruthie]

started today. Audible doesn't have the percentage of where I am, just the chapter name so I'll prob have to wait until the end before reading your spoilers. I like it so far!

[Ruthie]

I liked it a lot. While I agree it wasn't as good as the first one and there were some predictable things and references I didn't get, I still enjoyed the ride

(view spoiler)[

These are some of my notes to the other group I'm in when we were discussing it. I haven't looked at your notes yet so most of these I was responding to other's notes in the other group but thought I'd post here too so you could see

Wade being unlikeable is realistic to be honest, Just because he won the contest and got rich doesn't mean that all his problems went away and he was a great person after that. Also, he's always stalked Samantha and acted in ways that aren't great, even in the first one. We just excused it a lot more for him because of his home life. A poor asshole can also be an asshole when they are rich and I kinda appreciate the author for making the character more realistic instead of a hero that can do no wrong, which I read about all the time.

I didn't understand the Hughes references or Prince references or LOTR references but I was just along for the ride. I read some disappointing books before this one so this one was better and I enjoyed it more in comparison to the others

The AI thing I thought was very predictable and the resolution too but it didn't ruin the book for me. I also like that Og saved the day and others helping Wade a lot instead of it being largely Wade like in the first book. (hide spoiler)]

[Ruthie]

Ya I'm not sure if a sequel needed to be made, I think part of it is that the movie succeeded and shot the book to fame so maybe they wanted him to write another one and write it quickly. It seemed like he didn't spend too much time thinking things through esp with the AI portion of the book but that's ok. I still enjoyed it!

[Ruthie]

A lot of the people in my other group discussing it didn't like it! My husband didn't like it either. I'm thinking my low expectations made me like it more

[Kim]

starting today, i'm not sure what i'm getting into (honestly don't remember reading the synopsis)

[Kim]

11% (view spoiler)[ bit of a slow start for me. maybe it's because i'm annoyed at wade for his interaction with samantha, or maybe it's because there isn't really a hook yet, just foreshadowed doom and gloom. we shall see. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Kim]

this is a struggle bus