Review: Armada by Ernest Cline

Title: Armada

Author:  Ernest Cline
Publisher: Crown Publishing

Publishing Date: July 14th, 2015

Pages: 384
Genre: Science Fiction

Series:  Stand Alone
Source: Audio

 

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 video games 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 video game 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?

I really enjoyed reading Ready Player One and was very excited to read another book by Ernest Cline. This one sounded pretty exciting. I mean I like video games, I loved the movie War Games and The Last Starfighter.  Space adventure sounds amazing, aliens sound fun. This book was a little of a disappointment for me. I thought it was interesting and I really enjoyed some aspects of the book, but it was a little too much action and not enough story or character interaction for me. 

Zack has been playing video games his entire life. They are his life. He has been dreaming his entire life for something exciting to happen. Well one day it does when he sees a UFO outside the window. This leads to some investigation which leads to his father's theory of video games being preparation for war which leads to a huge adventure of a lifetime. 

I dont' think I will have much to say in this review, this book is very hard to review without giving something vital away. So it will be short. 

What I liked about this book. The story was very interesting. The more into the story I got, the more interesting it became. I really liked the storyline and plot. 

The characters. I loved Zack... for being a teenage boy character. He wasn't whiny, he was smart, he was a good kid, he had a great relationship with his mother. 

I also loved all the nerdy sci fi talk of games movies and pop culture. Ernest Cline always does such a great job adding this stuff in. I am total geek and reading geek in my books always makes me happy.

What I didn't like. The action. I like action in my book but there was too much video game detail. I felt it was overload and found myself bored during the action scenes. I do like action but I like them short. When there is a load of action there is not enough character interaction and character building. Even though I really liked Zack, I didn't feel like I knew him until the end. Also I felt in between the action sequences the book seemed a bit slow. 

I really feel if I had more character interaction I would have really loved this book. There was a teeny bit of romance and I thought I though it was cute, but there wasn't many scenes with the romance. There were some great family moments, but again not too many. 

Most of the book is is spent in Zack's head, his ideas, his research, his thoughts. I just needed more. 

Now this was for about 3/4 of the book. The last 4th I really really enjoyed. The ending I loved. It just seemed to take forever to get there and I wished I had more character interaction instead of long winded action sequences. Now if you love action filled books, this is for sure the book for you. 

It was okay. Great story but just not the kind of read I particularly enjoy.

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 Universal Pictures. Ernie lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-traveling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic video games.