Review : Armada by Ernest Cline
Armada by Ernest Cline
Pages : 339
Genre : Science-Fiction
Stand alone
My Rating : 2.5/5
About the Book :
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.
My Thoughts :
You guys may or may not remember that I read and absolutely loved Ready Player One. It wasn’t a literary masterpiece in any way – not that it pretends to be so! – but it was so much fun that I gave it an enthusiastic 4.5 stars and started recommending it every chance I got. To say that I was excited about the release of Armada would be a huge understatement.
And I’m sad, really really sad to report that Armada didn’t live up to my hopes and dreams. It wasn’t bad, exactly; I really enjoyed the first few chapters, and was curious to see where it would go. But after about 50-100 pages, I felt a bit bored and had to push myself through the story. Had it been a book by an author I wasn’t familiar with, I would have probably abandoned it. But I was constantly hoping Cline’s story would redeem itself along the way.
What didn’t work? Hard to say. I had expected the author to repeat what had worked so well in his first book, so all the references, quotes, inside jokes, weren’t a surprise to me, and I didn’t mind them in theory. Practically though, I was a lot less familiar with the material that inspired Armada than with the material that inspired Ready Player One, so it probably affected my enjoyment.
I say probably, because I don’t think that’s where most of my disappointment came from. I think everything just felt so predictable. The events, the characters’ archetypes, the tropes used, nothing was brought together in a way that felt fresh and exciting. I didn’t feel myself pulled into the action, I never felt the danger, and I never felt anything for any of the characters. Also, all of it felt very rushed and lacked a certain depth.
All in all, it’s fair to say that the magic I found in Ready Player One was absent from Armada. I still enjoy Ernest Cline’s writing, and I like that he writes a lighter, funnier and easy to relate to kind of sci-fi, but the story isn’t one I’ll remember fondly. In fact, I already remember less of Armada than I do of Ready Player One, 3 years later… I believe that – unfortunately – says it all!
I never read Ready Player One because I thought I’d have a similar reaction to you on this book – I’m a huge NOT-fan of the 80s and so having all the 80s stuff in there, mixed with video games, made me cringe just thinking about it. I’m thinking these books continue to not be for me. Perhaps Ernest Cline and I have very different interest bases. 😀
Haha! Well considering all of this I wouldn’t recommend this one to you either! It’s more sci-fi than 80’s, but still… it sounds like it wouldn’t be a fun read for you!
This makes me sad. I loved Ready Player One and had high hopes for this.
Don’t despair, you might enjoy it! I’ve seen many reviews of people who enjoyed it a lot!
Oh darn! Sounds like a disappointment 🙁 I really liked Ready Player One as well, but not necessarily because of all the geeky references (I don’t think I’m geek enough to catch all of them, anyway) but because it felt like such a coming-of-age story of epic proportions with an underdog protagonist and a really fun world to explore with puzzles and everything. Therefore I am happy! I think I’ll still try Aramada and see if it doesn’t jive with me – hopefully I’ll be able to catch *some* references 😛
I fully agree with your feeling of RPO – and I do encourage you to give this one a try! A lot of people still enjoyed it. The references I missed weren’t that much of a problem for me, and I really enjoyed the first few chapters. But I couldn’t connect with the story, sadly. I think I read Clines has a third book in the works, and I think I’ll give it a try when it’s out!