I read Ready Player One in pretty close proximity to The Martian (read before I joined CBR), and they were two of the more entertaining reads of the last few years. When Ernest Cline published Armada, I was out of my mind with anticipation. While I didn’t expect it to be another Ready Player One, I did get my hopes up. And, like a lot of people, was let down. So, since The Martian is so indelibly connected to Ready Player One, in my mind, […]
Close encounters
Zack Lightman is busy daydreaming in class when a spaceship appears outside the window. It is a spaceship that looks exactly like the ones in his favourite video game. Is he losing his mind or is something else at play here? Are aliens really making contact with us? And what does his long-dead father have to do with it all? Armada is Ernest Cline’s second book after Ready Player One, the critically acclaimed novel that’s currently being made into a film. Like in RPO, Cline […]
Wil Wheaton is a hell of a narrator.
I listened to Armada, narrated by Wil Wheaton. Wil Wheaton can make an ok book into a great listen. (Thanks, Natalie!) I am glad I put some space between Ready Player One and Armada. RP1 is a masterpiece of nostalgia, while Armada trades in the same nostalgia, it’s less graceful. It’s impossible not to compare the two, however I think I put enough distance between them that my disappointments and delights are all related to this book on it’s own. Mostly. The central idea of […]
“The only thing crazier than hallucinating a fictional videogame spaceship would be to blame it on a frosted breakfast pastry.”
I loved Ready Player One: it was unique and clever and while the constant eighties references got repetitive it made some contextual sense. I was aware that Armada, Cline’s follow up to Ready Player One, was not as well received as his debut but was willing to give it a try. Zack Lightman lives outside of Portland, Oregon in the near future. He spends his time playing video games with his friends or working at the local second hand video game store. His favorite game, Armada, is about an alien species coming […]
Open your mouth as wide as you can. I need to shove some pop culture references down your throat.
Oh dear. I’m going to keep this exceptionally short, as I don’t really have anything good to say. Like many of you, I really, really wanted to like this one. I tried really hard to keep Ready Player One out of my mind, and I tried not to compare the two while I was reading this one. And for almost half of Armada, I was ok. I was annoyed, and yes, I realized that this one wasn’t as good as RPO, but I was still […]
In the future all of our conversations will be in 80’s movie quotes
Armada is a summer blockbuster in book form. It’s entertaining, it moves fast, and it’s a fun ride. It’s also not nearly as smart as it thinks it is. Armada walks the line between “homage” and “rip off” on a razor wire. To be honest I’m still not sure which side it ultimately falls on but I’m leaning strongly toward rip off. Aliens are invading Earth and only a group of clandestinely trained gamers can save us. Sound familiar? The X-Files tells us “The truth […]