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 […]
Manic Pixie Dream World
I knew nothing about Ready Player One when I picked it up. Somewhere along the way I had gotten the impression that it was in the Hunger Games/Running Man kinda book–this was way off. Ready Player One is the story of a dystopian future USA, dominated by a virtual reality universe called OASIS. James Halliday, the man who created OASIS, before he died, hid a series of clues within it. The person who finds and solves these clues (Easter eggs) will be rewarded with Halliday’s […]
Time to get your 80’s on in a nerdy, techie way
Here’s a bit of 80’s pop culture/classic gamer porn for those of you who are into that kind of thing. It’s a bit over the top complicated but fun nonetheless. The year is 2044 and the internet has evolved into the OASIS. This is basically where everyone goes when they go online, and depending on your gear, you’ll wear wear haptic gloves, a head visor, and maybe even a haptic suit. While the OASIS was originally created as a gaming environment, it evolved into meeting […]
“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 […]
Eighties Nostalgia Overload
“Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable.” Ready Player One has been on my TBR list for a while now but the upcoming Spielberg movie adaptation raced it to the top of the pile- I could see my husband wanting to see the movie and I wanted to read it first. This is pretty heavily reviewed already on CBR so most people probably know the gist but here goes..: In the not to distant future, year 2044, […]