Shoto and Kiki had their baby boy, Daito. He’s happy and healthy, and we all have the honor of being his godparents. Shoto and Kiki send us a new photo of their son every week.
Wade and Samantha finally tied the knot a few months ago. Their first dance as husband and wife was an elaborate Bollywood number that they performed together. Aech and her wife, Endira, were the Best Man and the Matron of Honor, and they both joined in. The video they sent us, of the four of them dancing together in perfect synchrony, is my absolute favorite. I rewatch it every day.
Last week, Wade sent me a short email that said he and Samantha are expecting a little girl, and they plan to name her Kira. They both seem really happy—especially Wade. The prospect of becoming a father seems to have made him more hopeful and optimistic. He’s going to be a great dad, and I’m looking forward to experiencing fatherhood vicariously through him. It’s the closest to being a parent I’m ever going to get.
In the end, Samantha and Wade both had a change of heart about the ONI. He saw the ONI’s dangers much more clearly. And for the first time in her life, Samantha was willing to acknowledge its benefits.
“I was wrong,” she told me, after she’d told Wade. “This technology does make a lot of people’s lives infinitely better than they would be without it. People like L0hengrin and my grandmother. And it also saves people’s lives—it saves everything about who they were—forever. I have my grandma back. And she has me back too. It’s a miracle and I am grateful for it every day.” Then, because she’s the sweetest and the coolest, Samantha added, “And your stubbornness helped make that happen, Parzival. So thank you. I thank Wade all the time, too, but you deserve at least half the credit.”
* * *
Things aren’t perfect. The people who remain back on Earth are still facing plenty of huge problems. But they also still have the OASIS as their collective means of escape.
Despite the Anorak Incident, billions of people still use an ONI headset every day. Only a few dozen people died as a result of Anorak’s actions, nearly all of them when he crashed Samantha’s jet. The handful of others were killed by other people—murderous criminals who preyed on helpless ONI users while they were being held hostage by Anorak’s infirmware. But there wasn’t a single death caused by Synaptic Overload Syndrome. The ONI headsets hadn’t actually harmed anyone. So humanity collectively decided that the OASIS Neural Interface was completely safe—or at least worth the risk. The people of Earth still need an escape, and I don’t blame them. Neither does Wade. But he still says that he’ll never put on an ONI headset again. And I believe him.
Even with all of the problems confronting our counterparts back on Earth, it’s comforting to know that there are smart, resourceful people back there, doing everything in their power to make life better for their fellow human beings—while digital copies of many of those same people are out here in space, searching to find humanity a new home.
Stored inside the sprawling ARC@ADIA simulation, backed up on a redundant array of solid-state hard drives in the belly of the ship, is a digital library of humanity’s greatest hits. All of our books and music and movies and games and art—we brought it all along with us. A backup of our entire civilization that will survive as long as we do. All of human history and culture—a record of everything that humans were and are—it’s all stored here aboard this ship, like a cosmic ark, carrying a digital time capsule of who we were—and who we still are. And someday perhaps we will encounter another civilization like our own to share it with. Then we’ll finally get a chance to compare notes.
Until then, we have nothing but endless time and infinite space, stretching out ahead of us forever.
Our existence is filled with joy and happiness. I am alive. And I’m with Samantha. And our friends are all alive too. And we are all together, embarking on the greatest adventure in the history of our species. And best of all, we’re going to live forever. I will never have to lose them, and they will never have to lose me.
I grew up playing videogames. Now I live my whole life inside of one. That’s why I feel qualified to say that Kira Underwood was right, when she said that life was like an extremely difficult, horribly unbalanced videogame. But sometimes the game can have a surprise ending….
And sometimes, when you think you’ve finally reached the end of the game, suddenly you find yourself standing at the start of a whole new level. A level that you’ve never seen before.
And the only thing you can do is keep right on playing. Because the game that is your life still isn’t over yet. And there’s no telling how far you might be able to get, what you might discover, or who you might meet when you get there.
For Maureen O’Keefe Cline
and her namesake
Maureen O’Keefe Aptowicz
Writing a sequel to a novel that’s had as remarkable a life as Ready Player One is an incredible privilege, but it was also a daunting task. During the years I spent working on this story, I often found myself haunted by the words of the great Billy Joel: Don’t ask for help, you’re all alone. PRESSURE.
Thankfully, I wasn’t alone, and I did have help. Lots of it. I never could have written this novel without the steady supply of love, support, advice, and inspiration provided by my brilliant and beautiful wife, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz. She is my anchor, my best friend, the best mom and stepmom ever, the funniest person in our marriage, and the true Queen of Itsalot.
I’m also grateful to all of the young people in my family and my life who constantly re-electrified my spirit and imagination with their own while I was writing this story: Reenie, Libby, Addison, Scarlett, Lily, Cian, Declan, Lucas, Camillo, Ramiro, Harrison, and Cavanaugh.
As always, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my tireless, unstoppable team, my manager and producing partner, Dan Farah (aka “the Jersey Jedi”) of Farah Films & Management, and my literary agent, Yfat Reiss Gendell, along with her entire staff at YRG Partners. I’m incredibly fortunate to have you both as my friends and earliest development partners.
I’m also eternally grateful to my brilliant editor, Julian Pavia, for his patience, honesty, guidance, and friendship. I also want to thank his father, the late George Pavia, for being my friend Julian’s dad, and for making the world a cooler and kinder place as a result.
My sincere thanks also go out to everyone at Ballantine and Penguin Random House, including (but not limited to!) Chris Brand, Sarah Breivogel, Gina Centrello, Debbie Glasserman, Kim Hovey, Mark Maguire, Rachelle Mandik, Madeline McIntosh, Kathleen Quinlan, Quinne Rogers, Robert Siek, Caroline Weishuhn, and Kara Welsh.
Another huge thank you goes out to my friend Wil Wheaton, for once again lending his incredible acting talent to the audiobook of this novel. Wil doesn’t just read the text—he performs it—and his iconic performance is the reason the audiobook for Ready Player One debuted at #1 when The New York Times launched their audiobook bestsellers list….and remained there at the top of the list for five solid months. Thank you for joining forces with me once again, Wil!
I’d also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the entire cast, crew, and producing team of the Ready Player One film adaptation, for making so many of my dreams come true. Stepping on to the set each day was like taking a tour of my own imagination. Every writer should be so lucky.
I am especially grateful to Steven Spielberg, for giving me his feedback on this story, and for his encouragement while I was writing it. I also want to thank him for his kindness and generosity, which are both somehow just as boundless as his enthusiasm and creativity.
For their friendship, advice, support, and encouragement, I also want to thank Sima Bakshi, Chris Beaver, Sean Bishop, Laurent Bouzereau, George Caleodis, Darren Esler, Matt Galsor, Bobby Hall, Mike Henry, Hugh Howey, Sarah Kay, Jeff and Tonie Knight, Kjell Lindgren, George R. R. Martin, Tim McCanlies, Matt McDonald, Mike Mika, Zak Penn, Robert Rodriguez, P
atrick Rothfuss, John Scalzi, Andy Shockney, Jay Smith, Jed Strahm, Craig Tessler, Howard Scott Warshaw, Andy Weir, and Chris Young.
I also owe a long overdue thank you to one of my favorite writers, Jonathan Tropper, for letting me quote, “People who live in glass houses should shut the fuck up,” in Ready Player One. Attribution at last! If you enjoy great writing, please do yourself a favor and check out his work.
Once again, I also want to thank all of the writers, filmmakers, actors, musicians, programmers, game designers, and geeks whose work I’ve paid tribute to in this book. These people have all entertained and enlightened me, and I hope that this story will inspire others to seek out their creations.
Finally, I want to thank you, Dear Reader, for coming along on another adventure with me.
MTFBWYA,
Ernest Cline
Austin, Texas
September 9, 2020
BY ERNEST CLINE
Ready Player Two
Armada
Ready Player One
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ernest Cline is a #1 New York Times bestselling novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. He is the author of the novels Ready Player One and Armada and co-screenwriter of the blockbuster film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. His books have been published in over fifty countries and have spent more than one hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-traveling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic videogames.
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Ready Player Two (9781524761356) Page 43
