unknown binding, 368 pages
Published by Crown.
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 Earth from alien invaders.
No, Zack hasn't lost his mind. …
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 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 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.
This description comes from the 2015 Crown Publishers edition.
Possibly the most terrible sophomore effort I've ever been subjected to. And I did enjoy Ready Player One and even Ready Player Two, although not as much.
While there were a few moments where inconsistent, "How does time/physics work?," Ejected me from suspension of disbelief, it was a fun read.
Full disclosure: I read this book only to keep up with the 372 pages we'll never get back podcast (which I recommend and which had also done a running commentary on Ready Player One previously).
I struggle to rate this one fairly ... I mean, if you really liked RP1, you will probably like this one too. If you only sort of liked RP1, you could probably find better uses of your time.
This book really felt like someone trying to capitalize on a previous success; writing on a deadline and just turning in a first draft. The plot was a kind of half-baked pastiche of the Last Starfighter, Ender's Game, Starship Troopers, and that one episode of the Clerks cartoon where Randal is captured and put into slavery because of his prowess at a pyramid building video game.
To its credit, the book is kind of fun at times …
Full disclosure: I read this book only to keep up with the 372 pages we'll never get back podcast (which I recommend and which had also done a running commentary on Ready Player One previously).
I struggle to rate this one fairly ... I mean, if you really liked RP1, you will probably like this one too. If you only sort of liked RP1, you could probably find better uses of your time.
This book really felt like someone trying to capitalize on a previous success; writing on a deadline and just turning in a first draft. The plot was a kind of half-baked pastiche of the Last Starfighter, Ender's Game, Starship Troopers, and that one episode of the Clerks cartoon where Randal is captured and put into slavery because of his prowess at a pyramid building video game.
To its credit, the book is kind of fun at times and at least a little amusing if you are able to not dwell on the plot holes, slapped together characters, cringe inducing one-liners, and droning lists of random video game facts.
The things that kill me are the giant narrative leaps, which really give me the impression that they had previously been a note the author left for himself meaning to come back later and flesh them out and then ran out of time to do so. To wit: compare the half page of descriptions of the "snackage" available to the intrepid star fighters to the literally single sentence devoted to curing cancer.
Anyway - decent enough for an airplane book or if you really liked Ready Player One and are really, really desperate for something kind of similar, though I suggest you do as I did and hit up your library to get your copy.
🍬
I enjoyed Cline's earlier book READY PLAYER ONE and this is very much in the same vein. Suffers some of the same problems: characters equipped with magical technology, resulting in absurd leaps of deus ex machina—but it's a fun and charming read with some interesting ideas. If you're considering this one, I'd read RP1 first; it hits a lot of the same emotional notes while straining reality somewhat less.
Tried it, loved Ready Player One. This one however, is horrible. Absolutely horrible. I'm quite nerdy, but this reads as a 15-y/o boy raving about a computergame. Without a plot, or character building or worldbuilding.
No, sorry, not for me.
I enjoyed Ready Player One, and was curious as to read what Cline wrote next, whether he could keep up the pace of nerdy retro observations.
Well, he can, but it doesn't make much sense outside of that particularly contrived world.
In Armada, it feels forced and purposeless. I wasn't interested in the characters, and I wasn't particularly sympathetic for their plight. I felt the romance was iffy and the twists were unsurprising. It's a shame, because if it was his first novel I'd probably have enjoyed it more.
Where I could overlook the problems in Ready Player One because of the enormous amount of fun it was, Armada actually make me think less of RPO.
