When I stumbled across Ready Player One it was new, it was different, and it was written for the nostalgia hitting spots for this kid who graduated from high school in 1989.

Then it became cool to hate the book, the author, and everything it stood for. I didn’t, I still hold a special place in my heart for Ready Player One.

When I saw this, I instantly got it on release and started to read it. By page 100 I was ready to put it down. I was so disgusted with what Percival had become by the end of the first act i almost put it down forever.

Then the second act kicker came in.

This book went through the mid life crisis anyone is going through looking back a their life as a kid, and how ‘nostalgic’ it was and how great you thought it was, it pokes holes in every terrible thing the 80s were, and all the marginalized people, the sex objectified women, everything, rips them to shreds.

Then it brings back something I’ve been missing in 2020, a lot of hope.

I’m sure a lot of you will continue your ‘hate it cuz it’s cool’ mantra, but this to me felt like Mr Cline had a bit of an epiphany, and learned form it, and wrote something better than the first.