4.8 Stars.
syn·op·sis
Zack Lightman has spent
his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more
like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s
spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic,
world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence
and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.
But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.
And then he sees the flying saucer.
Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.
No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.
It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?
At once gleefully embracing and brilliantly subverting science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you’ve ever read before—one whose every page is infused with the pop-culture savvy that has helped make Ready Player One a phenomenon.
But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.
And then he sees the flying saucer.
Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.
No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.
It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?
At once gleefully embracing and brilliantly subverting science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you’ve ever read before—one whose every page is infused with the pop-culture savvy that has helped make Ready Player One a phenomenon.
re·view
On a fine vacation day in Denver, I decided to go to the Tattered Cover, because books and side note, if you are ever in Denver, go! It is BEAUTIFUL! Ugh, I can't deal. I saw this on the shelf and thought I was elucidating, because I was very sure the book wasn’t supposed to come out till the next month, but it was there, on the varnished shelf, looking beautiful, I bought it on the spot, and felt like I was getting away with something...
For the next week, it sat on my hotel nightstand. I knew once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop and you know, vacation and all, I wanted to have some dedicated time for it, and I am pretty sure the husband wouldn’t like it I was awake till morning reading, so as the adult I am, ended up reading the entire thing on the flight back and regret nothing.
But you know, lets talk about the book and not me..
And the elephant, yes, it reminded me a lot of Enders Game, but to be honest, I liked this a lot more than Enders and the similarities didn’t bother me at all.
Another big part of the book is the fatherless situation, witch I can’t really give an opinion on, because I never experienced anything like it before.
My favorite thing about Cline are the references, I LOVED the playlist, since I know nothing about video games, I don’t linger too much on any of that. As always, I loved the tone of the narrating, it was witty and sarcastic and lovely.
The ending felt philosophical, about how humanity came together and what not. Am I overanalyzing this? hahaha.. But I did feel like an open ending, I don’t know if there is more to come, but it there is certainly room for that, this book is completely plot oriented, so I think it would be interesting to see a second book more character based.
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