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Armada

Ernest Cline

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Jul 14, 2015 Christopher rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, 21st-century, science-fiction, fiction, american

This book really didn't stand a chance, not after a debut novel like Ready Player One. I mean, even Cervantes went through a sophomore slump after publishing the first part of Don Quixote; nobody cares about Exemplary Stories. In the same way, Ernest Cline is having trouble injecting his brand of lighthearted, geeky nostalgia into his second work.

Here we have a yarn chronicling the attacks upon Earth by aliens from Europa, Jupiter's icy moon. Story goes, we discovered a giant swastika on it, so This book really didn't stand a chance, not after a debut novel like Ready Player One. I mean, even Cervantes went through a sophomore slump after publishing the first part of Don Quixote; nobody cares about Exemplary Stories. In the same way, Ernest Cline is having trouble injecting his brand of lighthearted, geeky nostalgia into his second work.

Here we have a yarn chronicling the attacks upon Earth by aliens from Europa, Jupiter's icy moon. Story goes, we discovered a giant swastika on it, so we went to check it out, unleashing upon ourselves some angry E.T.s who are very keen on keeping their territory free of grubby human hands. Enter Zack Lightman, a spazzy high school gamer with daddy issues, who is only too happy to discover that the solution to the alien problem is—you guessed it—video games!

As far as I can tell, Ernest Cline's modus operandi is to take the things that mean A LOT to him, but really have no inherent value, and make them important. In Ready Player One, a vast knowledge of geek culture, video games, movie trivia, etc. can make someone the richest and most powerful person in the world. Now in Armada, video game skills can literally save the human race. It just doesn't work as well in this book, though. (Kudos to Cline, though, who's made it work for himself. He's alchemied his own geekery into millions of dollars in book sales and film adaptation deals.)

Armada fails in execution. Cline's writing on a sentence level isn't great, but that's no reason a book has to fail. Ready Player One succeeded because it kept the reader turning pages and it connected the reader to things they're nostalgic about. Armada tries to do the same thing, but the plot isn't nearly as gripping or believable and the nostalgia isn't as fresh. There are several twists that just didn't hit very hard. It's also a big problem that, in a book about humans fighting aliens with video games, the most unbelievable element is the protagonist's relationship with his father. What this book really feels like is a novel by Jon Scalzi, a solidly 3-star writer that's good for a boring weekend but is never life-changing.

So give it a read, but don't expect to be as entertained as you were with Ready Player One. Like everyone else is saying, it's like Ready Player One, but not as good. Or you know, just wait for the movie. The film rights sold way back in 2012.

And here's another good thing I can say about it: at least it didn't reveal that Atticus Finch is a staunch racist. ...more

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Jul 22, 2015 Camelia Rose (on hiatus) rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 05, 2015 Meghan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, favorites, sci-fi, dmbc, book-club, young-adult, american, audiobook, audio-book

I liked this better than RPO. I liked Wil Wheaton's narration better than in RPO. I am the minority. It doesn't have as much of the nostalgia factor as RPO but it has less teenage angst. ...more

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