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Armada

Ernest Cline (Goodreads Author)

3.54 · Rating details · 103,382 ratings · 13,248 reviews

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 ...more

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Hardcover, 355 pages

Published July 14th 2015 by Crown Publishing

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Jul 14, 2015 Ariel rated it it was ok

NOPE.

Believe me when I say I was ready to love this book. Ready Player One was so great! And this was about video games and alien invasions! I jumped in to Armada ready to be caught by an awesome net..

.. and instead fell flat on my face. On concrete. And then a piano fell on me.

The equation as it stands:

+ Boring characters (I didn’t care about anyone! I didn’t feel we spent enough time with a single character for me to care about their fate and so when something happened to someone I just shrugg NOPE.

Believe me when I say I was ready to love this book. Ready Player One was so great! And this was about video games and alien invasions! I jumped in to Armada ready to be caught by an awesome net..

.. and instead fell flat on my face. On concrete. And then a piano fell on me.

The equation as it stands:

+ Boring characters (I didn’t care about anyone! I didn’t feel we spent enough time with a single character for me to care about their fate and so when something happened to someone I just shrugged and kept reading)
+ an annoying main character (I hated him! i wasn’t rooting for him even a little bit! I would have liked literally any other character to be our hero/heroine)
+ deus ex machina ALL OVER THE PLACE (the plot kept running into situations that made Ernest Cline have to create silly and ridiculous ways out.. near the end I was just rolling my eyes “well of COURSE there was a simple 1-minute hack to solve that giant problem! -.-)
+ anti-climaxes left right and centre (just when you think something exciting is going to happen it’s like a deflating balloon and you’re left thinking “wait, was I supposed to think that was awesome?”)
+ an over saturation of pop culture references (listen, I get it. Ernest Cline loves showing off his knowledge of 80’s pop culture. Whereas in Ready Player One it felt a bit heavy, right here it basically sunk the ship. There were references being made where they didn’t add to the plot, where they didn’t fit into normal conversation or thought, and where they expected to explain something important that I therefore didn’t understand because I don’t know all of these obscure references!)
+ wasted potential (the big reveal at the end was actually interesting but I really felt it was a case of “too little too late”)
+ bad editing (I hate to be a stickler for grammar, but sometimes it crosses a line - throughout reading this i kept shaking my head and just thinking “did the editor give up? why is it so choppy?”)
= NOPE.

I actually had a blast reading this .. because I read it aloud with my boyfriend. (Read his review here!) Every night we’d get together and read a chapter or two and it became a cringe fest that we laughed through together. If, however, I hadn’t been reading it with him I don’t even know if I would have finished it.

I’ve not given up on Ernest Cline - Ready Player One is a super fantastic and fun novel, and I feel like Ernest Cline is writing interesting sci-fi for our contemporary times, I just hope that whatever he does next is better plotted and not rushed <3 ...more

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Aug 20, 2015 Kemper rated it did not like it

Shelves: sci-fi, craptacular, 2015

- The Last Starfighter
- Ender’s Game
-“Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a ragtag, fugitive fleet on a lonely quest for a shining planet known as Earth.
- Proton packs
- Twiki from Buck Rogers
- “I’d buy that for a dollar!”
- Ms Pac-Man
- Mix tapes
- “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
- Pitfall
- “Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator - and vanished.”
- Tron
- “Where we’re goi ...more

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Jul 02, 2015 Emily May rated it it was ok

Shelves: arc, sci-fi, 2015

I'd say I'm pretty nerdy.

I guess there's no set definition, but I do have a comic book collection that takes up its own closet. I have played WoW obsessively in the past and I enjoy going to sci-fi conventions (view spoiler)

I was a Pokemon master for the first five generations and only haven't played the sixth because I keep scolding myself with "you're too old!" every time I see it in the stores. This is my favourite t-shirt:

This is my f ...more

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Jul 15, 2015 Sam Quixote rated it did not like it

Teenager Zack Lightman is the 6th best Armada player in the world, a sci-fi shoot ‘em up where you pilot a ship blasting away alien invaders. And then he discovers the game was really designed to find the best pilots in the world and he’s been drafted in a real-life war against aliens!

Computer games used to find skilled players - kids, usually - to fight aliens in an intergalactic war? Yeah, it’s been done already in The Last Starfighter and Ender’s Game. In fact the derivative nature of Ernest ...more

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Sep 20, 2014 Shelby *trains flying monkeys* rated it did not like it

Shelves: boring-as-hell, from-publisher, dnf, young-adult, read-2015, save-trees

I like to think I'm sorta with it as an adult.

I read books that my teenagers like. I run from adult responsibilities. I love some pop culture stuff. I make fart jokes with my tweenish age son.
I'm totally on board with the cool stuff.

Until I met this book.
I absolutely and totally hate it. I know I should make myself finish it since I received a copy as an arc. I'm not doing it. You can't make me.

I loved Ready Player One so much that it is one of my favorites that I've read this year ...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Ashley rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, addictive, nerd-lit, treasure-and-adventure, take-me-to-your-leader

8/02/15: Okay, let’s get this out of the way: If you’re looking to recreate the singular reading experience you had with Ready Player One, to recapture that same magical feeling of wonder and awesomeness, you’re going to be disappointed with this book. Just, straight up.

Armada is not RPO. They have similarities, but there also a lot of differences, and those differences are going to cause a lot of people not to like this one very much. Them’s just the facts. RPO, as far as I’m concerned, is one ...more

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Jul 26, 2015 Edward Lorn rated it did not like it

WINNER: WORST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015!

Could we have a moment of silence for my love of pop culture references? Thank you.

...

E.'s Love of Pop Culture References - 1986-2015. R.I.P. (I was born in 1980, but I didn't truly flip my shit over something until the Howard the Duck movie came out in '86. I'm sure there will be several uber nerds who will claim that that's why I didn't "get" this novel, because I wasn't born wearing a Star Trek uniform.)

Ernest Cline is, quite simply, the Stephenie Meyers of ...more

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Jul 17, 2015 Alejandro rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, video-games, humor, espionage, politics, novel, alternate-reality, military

I expected something more original...

ZACK’S GAME

I was really excited to read Armada since I read some months ago Ready Player One and I enjoyed A LOT that other book.

So, reading the next novel by Ernest Cline was a obvious decision.

I was aware of the basic premise, and I really hoped to read something fresh and original with the same sense of witty and humor found on Ready Player One, but while I can’t deny that Armada contains witty and humor, I didn’t find it fresh or original.

Any big ...more

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Aug 29, 2013 Annie rated it liked it

Shelves: male-pov, read-audiobook, 2010s-release, hypalicious, science-fiction

This was disappointing, especially compared to Ready Player One. I'm definitely not the target audience for this, but...still. It's kinda fun, but also utterly predictable.

(Also, to all the people that have commented on this review and acted annoyed at me that it's more The Last Starfighter than Ender's Game: Haven't seen The Last Starfighter. Don't care to. No need to get after me about it.)

Pre-review:

So basically...Ender's Game?

Sure, why not? This'll probably be better than Ender's Game anyway ...more

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Jun 04, 2015 Carmen rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: People Who Wish It Was the 1980s Again

Shelves: american-author, fiction, science-fiction, he-says, published2015, traditionally-published

I tried to keep my cool. I tried to remain skeptical. I reminded myself that I was a man of science, even if I did usually get a C in it.

I looked at it again. I still couldn't tell what it was, but I knew what it wasn't - it wasn't a meteor. Or a weather balloon, or swamp gas, or ball lightning. No, the unidentified flying object I was staring at with my own two eyes was most definitely NOT OF THIS EARTH.

My first thought was: Holy fucking shit.

How much jerking-off to '80s nostalgia can one man d ...more

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Aug 05, 2015 Mohammed Arabey rated it it was amazing

So, July, 14 2015 couldn't be any more accurate release date for "ARMADA"

I mean,
March, 24 2015
The X-Files 'Worldwide Popular 90s TV Series Started 1993' returns in new 6 episodes next year, after 13 years since it ended.

April, 20 2015
Independence Day: Resurgence, sequel to major 1996 international blockbuster, began filming 20 years since the first one.

& to Sci-Facts..
July, 14 2015
Pluto, the planet..finally got close-up images & detailed observations of it and its moons.

July, 23 2015
Earth 2. ...more

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Sep 21, 2015 Lyn rated it liked it

A stoned gamer’s fantasy.

Ernest Cline, you had me at “pass the blue milk, Aunt Beru”.

Author Ernest Cline follows up his brilliant 2011 novel Ready Player One with 2015’s Armada. Not as epic or as good (in any way) as its predecessor Armada does feature Cline’s inimitable ability to weave elements of pop culture, especially gaming and SF/F, into a fun adventure.

At best it is a cool Pink Floyd song, at worst a stupid Adam Sandler film. Armada tells the story of Zack Lightman, a gamer hero who has ...more

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Aug 23, 2013 seak rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015

This book gave me an epiphany and that's not always a good thing apparently.

Up to the moment I read this book, I'd started to convince myself that really the main thing that mattered to me in a book was readability. How much was a both looking forward to reading a book and how fast were the pages turning for me? Those are two things I thought a great deal of in terms of esteem (and star rating points).

Armada had all that. I did look forward to reading it and I thought the pages turned rather qui This book gave me an epiphany and that's not always a good thing apparently.

Up to the moment I read this book, I'd started to convince myself that really the main thing that mattered to me in a book was readability. How much was a both looking forward to reading a book and how fast were the pages turning for me? Those are two things I thought a great deal of in terms of esteem (and star rating points).

Armada had all that. I did look forward to reading it and I thought the pages turned rather quickly all in all.

But I started to realize that even though I was enjoying myself, I didn't really think all that much of this story. It's rather bland for the most part and so chalk full of 80's nerdery it's almost as if no other nerdery is allowed or considered worthy.

Now, this 80's geekiness works really well in Cline's debut, Ready Player One (How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...), because it's essential to the story. Maybe we should add, because it was new, but I don't know if you can go that far. When the premise revolves around the 80s it just works.

Here, Armada's 80's affiliation has more to do with a kid's dead father's obsession and begins to grate in all the wrong ways. It's as if this geeky kid never realized there were other nerdy things to do ... even though he's obsessed with a very hyper-futuristic video game that all kids his age are obsessed with. It'd've been fine with additional, modern references - 80's references are fine - it's just that it begins to sound like that's the only worthy decade when that's far from the truth and arguably only the beginning of a very many great decades for geekery that only got better.

It's reinforced by the fact that only those other characters who also know 80's lore are considered with it, cool, on fleek (that's what the kids are saying these days right? *cough* *cough*).

To reiterate it's like the emphasis makes it seem like you're only cool (geeky) if you're up on your 80's geekery. If not, you're not actually a geek.

Now, I don't want to act like I didn't like Armada. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I admit that my expectations were nigh-on insurmountable after how much I fell for Ready Player One. I still enjoyed Armada, I just won't be fondly remembering my time with the book like I still do with RPO. It's a fun romp and I've forgone mention of the inconsistencies I saw (I think I gave it a hard enough time as is).

I'll still be scooping up Cline's next book, but probably not with as much fervor. Expectations have been tempered.

3 out of 5 Stars (recommended with reservations) ...more

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Jun 12, 2014 Will M. rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, 2015, books-i-own, best-of-2015

"Kill or be killed. Conquer or be conquered. Survive or go extinct."

My review of Cline's first novel: Ready Player One

If you clicked on the link above and read my review of RPO, you would know that I was completely blown away by his first novel. RPO will always be my favorite novel of all time, and that fact managed to alter my expectations when it comes to the Sci-Fi genre. I haven't read a novel as good as RPO, but hopefully I'd find one soon. After I finished it last year, I checked if Cl "Kill or be killed. Conquer or be conquered. Survive or go extinct."

My review of Cline's first novel: Ready Player One

If you clicked on the link above and read my review of RPO, you would know that I was completely blown away by his first novel. RPO will always be my favorite novel of all time, and that fact managed to alter my expectations when it comes to the Sci-Fi genre. I haven't read a novel as good as RPO, but hopefully I'd find one soon. After I finished it last year, I checked if Cline had other novels published, and unfortunately none were in existence. Armada was more than a year away, and I was honestly expecting this to be just as good, if not better. If you would ask me what my first reaction was while reading the novel, I'd say I was disappointed halfway through. In the end though, I had mixed emotions. Mixture of sadness, happiness, disappointment, and an inexpressible feeling of wanting for more.

I will not compare RPO and Armada in this review. Yes, I liked the former more than the latter, but Armada was good in its own way. It deserves a proper review. If you're looking for someone who did a comparison of the two, then I'd suggest reading someone else's review. The first paragraph was more of a backstory of why I read this novel in the first place, and the shorter version of the reason would be that Ernest Cline is one of my favorite authors ever, and also because the premise of Armada was compelling as fuck.

Let's talk about the plot. I heard a copious amount of comparison between Armada and The Last Starfighter. Even the author himself mentioned TLS in the novel itself, and I will honestly say that I haven't seen TLS. I had no idea what the plot was, so I read Armada and thought that the idea was fairly original. I've heard of the whole thing before, of course, but I haven't had much experience with it before. I'm sure I've watched something similar, but nothing recently so I didn't have much to compared it with. This could be the reason why i enjoyed this more as compared to most disappointed readers.

What I didn't like about the plot would be the very dragging first 1/3 of the novel. I hated how Cline introduced everything. At first I didn't even like the characters at all, and the plot was boring for me. If I didn't know much of the author beforehand, I would've DNF this. It was that bad, but then the middle part happened. The action started to happen, and the development finally kicked in. The characters were more witty and funny, and I believe that helped a lot. I had a clue on what the ending would be, and once again sadly I was right. No plot twist whatsoever (view spoiler), and I hate it when that happens.

Like I just said, the characters started to develop better in the middle portion, and I learned to like most of them. Zack can be considered your typical main character when it comes to Sci-Fi novels, but I still liked him a lot. His decisions in the novel were a bit out of the ordinary. I like a character who deviates from sanity, but with the right amount of insanity. I can't talk much of the other character without spoiling, so let's just say there might be some plot twists for you guys. You might not see it coming, unlike me.

The ending was great for me. I know a lot of people complained about it, but fortunately it was good for me. I liked how he ended things, even though it was a bit cliche. I only really wish for something specific to happen in the end if I liked the characters, and it's a great thing that I was attached to most of them.

I played a lot of geeky stuff growing up, so plus points for Cline, once again. I like to read about the games I used to play before. It gives me good feeling of how great my childhood was, and that other people experienced some of the retro goodness that i did. it didn't have much geek stuff incorporated, but I guess it's fine because the author managed to make to plot better in the end.

Mostly books tend to lose a star because of the ending, but fortunately it was the other way around for Armada. I was sure about giving this 3 stars, but then the last 1/3 of the novel happened, then I decided to give it another important star. Most people would consider 3 stars as an indication that the novel was bad, but for me most of my 3 star ratings meant that I still enjoyed the novel. I guess I won't have to confuse people now with this 4 star review.

3.5/5 stars. I decided to round it up because the novel was great as a whole. If you want a great geeky Sci-Fi novel, then don't hesitate to pick this up. I'd also like to add in that you should buy the hardcover edition of this, because the design is spectacular! Not just the book itself, but also the dust jacket. You'll understand what I'm talking about if you manage to get a copy yourself. ...more

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Jan 01, 2015 Ashley DiNorcia rated it really liked it

Shelves: sff

4.5
First things first: if you go into Armada trying to compare it to Ready Player One you're doing a great disservice to yourself and this book. They are two very different entities. While I love the common thread of gaming running through both books, the space nerd in me was squeeing the whole way through this one.

That being said, I really really loved this. The pop culture references were once again top notch and I really really dig government conspiracy theories. It was a bit intense having t ...more

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Aug 24, 2013 Megan marked it as to-read

Ummm, Last Starfighter? Whatever, WANT!

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Jan 04, 2015 Samantha rated it it was ok

1.5/5 stars
This book felt like an endless struggle.
At no point did I feel connected to the characters or their plight. The story lacked originality and felt like a mashup of Red Dawn, ET and Close Encounters that is sold as a new inventive plot.

The constant pop culture references became extremely tiring and forced. Often they did not make sense in the context of the story and characters: it's funny how every single character regardless of age immediately gets obscure references to the 80's and ...more

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Dec 06, 2013 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it really liked it

Shelves: gaming, review-copy, arcs-and-galleys, science-fiction, aliens

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum: http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/07/14/b...

For fans of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, I don’t think there’s any other book coming out this year as highly anticipated as his second novel Armada. The new book is again a novel with pop culture references galore, but whereas Ready Player One was like a love letter to the 80s set in not-too-distant future, Armada takes place in present day with a shift in focus to all things sci-fi and gaming.

Needless to say, as an a 4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum: http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/07/14/b...

For fans of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, I don’t think there’s any other book coming out this year as highly anticipated as his second novel Armada. The new book is again a novel with pop culture references galore, but whereas Ready Player One was like a love letter to the 80s set in not-too-distant future, Armada takes place in present day with a shift in focus to all things sci-fi and gaming.

Needless to say, as an avid gamer with particular penchant towards massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, I must shamelessly confess to having a natural inclination to stories of this type; more than once, reading Armada made me wish that Eve Online and Dust 514 played like the games described in the book, or that Star Citizen was released already. And I think if you enjoyed Ready Player One, you might enjoy this one too. In many ways the two books are different, but in many ways they are similar as well — both are stories about average young men in the position to save the world, thanks to their super awesome Powers of the Geek!

We begin the story with an introduction to our protagonist Zack Lightman, worrying that he might be losing his mind. Staring outside the window during one his boring senior math classes, Zack spies a flying saucer in the sky, and not just any kind of flying saucer. The spaceship looks exactly like an enemy Glaive fighter in Armada, his favorite first-person space combat flight sim MMO. In the game, players from all over take the role of drone pilots, controlling Earth Defense Alliance ships to do battle with alien invaders. Zack’s been playing the game so much, he’s starting to think he’s hallucinating it in his real life as well.

Turns out, the good news is that Zack’s not crazy. The enemy fighter he glimpsed was as real as it could be. The bad news is, so is the Earth Defense Alliance and the war against the aliens. Governments around the world have known about this imminent attack for decades, and all the science fiction films and video games since the 70s have been preparing humanity for this very moment. Since their inception, online games like Armada and its companion ground-based first-person shooter Terra Firma have been training and honing the skills of potential recruits for the coming battle, right under everyone’s noses. As one of the highest ranked players in Armada, Zack is enlisted with other skilled gamers into the EDA’s forces.

It should have been a dream come true. In fact, the entire book reads like a wish fulfillment fantasy for any gamer who has ever wanted their favorite video game to be real, and to be the big damn hero of their own epic adventure. But still, Zack can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong. For example, if this real, why then are the aliens acting exactly like the way they would in his games and in all the science-fiction movies he grew up with? Zach realizes that life is imitating art when it really shouldn’t be – and it’s this concept that erodes the idea that Armada is just another version of The Last Starfighter but Ernest Cline style. Yes, the author has adapted that theme for his book, but at the same time he’s also subverted it, so that certain sections almost read like a tongue-in-cheek, satirical look at what audiences today expect to see out of an alien invasion story.

The story of Armada is thus actually quite clever, despite it being undeniably cheesy. We reach a saturation point with many of its ideas – some of which border on the totally ridiculous – that frequently call for a good deal of suspension of disbelief on the reader’s part (and not least because entrusting the fate of the entire human race to a bunch of regular civilian gamers is a dubious idea; if you even spend three minutes exposed to the general chat of any popular MMO, you can kind of infer why). And yet, the book is also undeniably fun. Simply put, the cheese works. It worked the same way it worked for a film like Galaxy Quest which parodied a lot of well-known Star Trek and sci-fi tropes, but somehow in the end still managed to function incredibly well as its own action-adventure stand alone. The result is that it’s still possible for someone not familiar with gamer culture or references to sci-fi movies like Star Wars (of which there are many) to enjoy Armada. However, writing as an addict to online gaming and all things Star Wars, I think that in many ways Armada can also be seen as lovely tribute to fans.

It does seem, though, that Ernest Cline has chosen his target audience and defined his niche, pressing the same hot buttons that brought him success with Ready Player One. He employs similar gimmicks in Armada, appealing to the reader’s sense of nostalgia while loading the book with lots of movie quotes and injecting a similar style of humor. A lot would depend on the individual reader, of course, but whether audiences will embrace this shtick again or demand something different, I think only time will tell. We’re also focusing less on general 80s this time around, so I think the appeal will also be much narrower, and it’s possible that those who really liked Ready Player One might not find the same enjoyment in Armada.

All told, my own stance is simple: if you’re just looking for a fun read, you’ll get it in spades. While the plot and characters in Armada aren’t particularly deep, the book certainly isn’t aiming to be a literary masterpiece. Instead, it goes for broke, not caring how far it goes in its quest to provide the maximum entertainment value for your time. As a result, Armada ends up being pure, unadulterated escapism. I loved the book, devouring it as soon as I got my hands on it and I sure don’t regret doing so at all. I can think of no other science fiction novel coming out this summer that would make a better beach read. ...more

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Jun 25, 2015 Maxwell rated it really liked it

"I was staring out the classroom window and daydreaming of adventure when I spotted the flying saucer."

From the very first sentence of the book, Ernest Cline takes the reader on a heart-pounding, laser-shooting, smile-inducing adventure. Fans of his first novel Ready Player One will find themselves transported into a world of geeky allusions, a diverse cast of characters, and honestly, a really, really good time.

Now it's inevitable to compare Armada to RPO because of Cline centering both around "I was staring out the classroom window and daydreaming of adventure when I spotted the flying saucer."

From the very first sentence of the book, Ernest Cline takes the reader on a heart-pounding, laser-shooting, smile-inducing adventure. Fans of his first novel Ready Player One will find themselves transported into a world of geeky allusions, a diverse cast of characters, and honestly, a really, really good time.

Now it's inevitable to compare Armada to RPO because of Cline centering both around the idea of video games and virtual reality. However, while there are similarities (the narrator Zack is quite similar in voice to RPO's Wade Watts; tons of nerdy references, action-adventure, and more), this one still stands apart and on its own.

I seriously couldn't put this book down. It started off a bit slow, very technical as far as video game and science fiction terminology goes, and took a bit to get into the action. But once it did, I ate this book up. The pacing was so quick that I felt compelled to read on. Most of the action of the book takes place in 24 hours. It's insane. And Zack is a snarky, likeable, albeit a bit average, narrator that I enjoyed getting inside his head. And of course there are a few plot twists thrown in that shocked me.

One of my favorite aspects of the book was the sort of alternate history/conspiracy theories that are presented to you. Also a female U.S. president; yes please.

But of course, I had a few minor issues with how Cline represented the love interest (talk about manic pixie dream girl), and the ending was just as fast-paced as the rest of the book. I would've been totally fine with 50 more pages to flesh out that resolution. Or at least give me a sequel! It was just so much to take in all at once--for us and for Zack--that I wanted more time and more information.

Overall I was pleased with this one. I had pretty high expectations, which might be unfair to the author, but RPO was just so darn great that how could I not?! And while I wouldn't say I was 100% satisfied, it was still a fun, exciting, solid reading experience that I hope others are pleased with too. ...more

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Jan 24, 2014 Amanda rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2015

My final thoughts below.

The only thing I liked about this was the mix tape playlist at the end.

There was nothing original or innovative about this story. I tried to look at it from a, "what if this happened to me in real like kind of thing and how cool that would be", but it wasn't. It felt like a rehashing of something that has been done countless times, and done better I might add. And even though Ernest Cline references those exact things, Wargames, Enders Game, The Last Starfigher, Starwars ...more

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Jun 02, 2015 Kristina Horner rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobooks, adult

I gave this book 2 stars.

I am going to preface my review by saying I really didn't enjoy reading this book very much. I will admit that it had a lot of hype and big shoes to fill, coming after Ready Player One, but for me it completely fell flat.

Maybe someone really really into flight sim and tactical war games will appreciate this book more, but I found it very dull. So much of the story involved having things explained to me and there was very little immediate action, which was hard to get int ...more

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Mar 17, 2014 Dan Schwent marked it as buy-this-for-me

Snarky pre-release review:
I thought there already was a novelization of The Last Starfighter...

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Jun 02, 2015 Robin (Bridge Four) rated it liked it

Shelves: fantastic-fantasy, sci-fi, awesome-audio, ya, o-captain-my-captain, super-sidekicks

Sale Alert 23May17 on Amazon for $2.99 Here

Before you pick this book up you need to ask yourself…’Am I ready to get my geek on???’ As soon as I saw that Ernest Cline author of Ready Player One had another book coming out and it was narrated by Wil Wheaton my amazon/audible one click pre-order went cRaZy and I shoved my money at them.

I’m just going to put it out there I liked Ready Player One more. So if you haven’t ready that yet GO GET IT!!! But Armada has some very nice characteristics too tha ...more

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Jul 26, 2015 Greg rated it did not like it

I'm sorry Ernest Cline.

I really did not like this book. It suffered from the same issues I found with Ready Player One, except turned up to 11 (unnecessary pop culture reference #1). First of all there was far too much shoehorning of irrelevant pop culture references, that not only wouldn't be understood by the majority of the target audience (having been born way after these movies / games were even relevant anymore), but also seemed to serve no other purpose than showing how much Cline knew ab ...more

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Aug 07, 2018 Carrie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Someone please tell me why I waited so long to read Armada by Ernest Cline. Ready, Player, One is easily one of my favorite books but for some reason I put this one off. While it's not quite up there with RPO it was still a great read.

In Armada Zack Lightman is a high school student who loves his video games. When his mother pressures him to think about the future he claims he'll be happy staying in his job at the local video game store.

One day at school Zack happens to see something in the sky ...more

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Jun 02, 2014 Matthew rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, gr_awards_2015, sci-fi, 2015, library

Cline didn't quite do it like Ready Player One. With Ready Player One it was just the right level of cheesy nostalgia and pop culture references to make it one of my favorite books ever.

With Armada, he just tried too hard. Every few seconds there was a reference to something from the 80s - up to the point where it seemed like almost every character was speaking in movie quotes or song lyrics.

A lot of the details seemed forced and coincidental. Everyone had someone to immediately hook up with. Th ...more

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Jul 14, 2015 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, blogging-for-books

www.melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com

Oh. My. God. What did I just read! My eyes teared up at the end of this book! YES! I teared up, don't judge me! :)

The first of the book just moved a long like normal with Zack being a boy that loved his video games and had anger management issues, but... I don't think he had anger management issues myself because if what happened to him to create that situation happened to me... you better believe I would have done the same thing! Kudos, Zack. You want to know www.melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com

Oh. My. God. What did I just read! My eyes teared up at the end of this book! YES! I teared up, don't judge me! :)

The first of the book just moved a long like normal with Zack being a boy that loved his video games and had anger management issues, but... I don't think he had anger management issues myself because if what happened to him to create that situation happened to me... you better believe I would have done the same thing! Kudos, Zack. You want to know what I'm talking about? Read the book :)

So, Zack plays video games with people all over the world. He is a senior in high school and works part time at a cool game store! They have EVERYTHING! It's a video nerds wet dream. All of the old school stuff and new too.

Let me tell you, this book is so full of the 80's that I wanted to step back in time! All of the old 80's games they talked about, the 80's music they listened to while playing the game, and references to 80's movies!!! Ok, I still have a ton of 80's music and I was singing away throughout the book when they mentioned a song.

I'm not giving out spoilers..soooo... some crazy things start to happen and I was thinking... this seems like The Last Starfighter or maybe, Starship Troopers.. Tron? It had a bit of all and more.

I love the camaraderie between the groups of friends in the situations they were put in throughout the book. I must say I honestly thought at the end of the book they were going to pull a SIKE.. all you just read was not real and so forth and so on. THAT did not happen. I would never have thought of that ending. I mean really? And I also teared up as I already said.

I recommend to anyone that loves the 80's, loves games, loves sci fi. You really need to be in touch with your 80's! The book isn't set in the 80's though.. sorry if I gave off that idea. It's set in the here and now, it's just got some cool peeps that love the gold ole days! I loved it!!!

**I would like to thank BLOGGING FOR BOOKS for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.**

...more

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Apr 13, 2015 Jenny rated it really liked it

Is it weird that I felt trolled throughout the whole entire book, but I kinda really liked it?! I liked how its very different from Ready Player One and how it is good in its own way, so there really isn't much reason to compare both of the books. Nonetheless Ernest Cline still managed to be just as funny, quirky and geeky which was great! Since Armada had an open ending, I wonder if there'll be a sequel.. ...more

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Feb 25, 2015 Jon Swartz rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned

I liked Ready Player One and was really looking forward to Armada. Was very disappointed and ultimately could not bring myself to finish past the halfway mark.

The prose in this book felt extremely clunky. There are few phrasings with any finesse, and many that made me wince ("She turned as if to walk away...and then she kissed me right on the lips, with tongue and everything.") A sci-fi or pop-culture reference is dropped unsubtly every few paragraphs. Ready Player One suffered from these proble ...more

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Dec 05, 2017 Jody rated it liked it

Full review now posted!

Armada is another book by Ernest Cline that bases its foundation on gaming. It also uses some of the same '80s terminology used in Ready Player One, but not overly so. The plot and overall feel of the story is completely different. The gaming and terminology elements worked outstandingly well in RPO, but I just wasn't feeling them as much in this book. So, in other words I wasn't blown away. Armada is a good book in its own right, and maybe me reading it right after RPO di ...more

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Play Book Tag: [poll ballot] Armada \| Ernest Cline \| 2 stars	6	17	Feb 04, 2020 05:28AM
Play Book Tag: (Poll Ballot) Armada by Ernest Cline - 3 stars	2	10	Jan 29, 2020 03:21PM
2020 SQHS Your Li...: Armada Book review	3	2	Jun 10, 2019 11:07AM
Dragons & Jetpacks: Armada / Overall Discussion / SPOILERS	27	75	Nov 24, 2018 08:23PM
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About Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline

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ERNEST CLINE is a novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. His first novel, Ready Player One, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, appeared on numerous “best of the year” lists, and is set to be adapted into a motion picture by Warner Bros. and director Steven Spielberg. His second novel, ARMADA, debuted at #4 on the NYT Bestseller list and is being made into a film by Univers ...more

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A hotshot gamer must save the Earth from extraterrestrials in Armada, the latest science fiction romp from the bestselling geek who gave us Ready...

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“I’d spent my entire life overdosing on uncut escapism, willingly allowing fantasy to become my reality.” — 47 likes

“Shit!" I heard Diehl shout over the comm. "I just lost my gorram shields because I'm already out of frakkin' power!"
"Dude," Cruz said. "You shouldn't mix swears from different universes.” — 40 likes

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