Hardcover, 355 pages
English language
Published Nov. 11, 2015 by Crown Publishers.
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.
Wenn ich mal wieder nach Gründen suche, mich selbst zu hassen, hab ich jetzt einen neuen: Ich habe Armada zu Ende gelesen.
maybe 4-
Slightly less awesome than Ready Player One, which is OK because it's its own thing. I was still mightily entertained. I'm still thinking about the ending (not sure I'm all in on that). I love, love, love Wil Wheaton narrating Cline's books!
maybe 4-
Slightly less awesome than Ready Player One, which is OK because it's its own thing. I was still mightily entertained. I'm still thinking about the ending (not sure I'm all in on that). I love, love, love Wil Wheaton narrating Cline's books!
Le second roman est toujours difficile, surtout après avoir écrit [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)|Ernest Cline|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500930947s/9969571.jpg|14863741], et malheureusement Armada accuse le coup. La formule pour ce coup ne marche pas aussi bien, les références étant beaucoup plus obscures, les personnages pas assez profonds, la conclusion un peu baclée. La mise en place prends tellement de temps qu'il ne reste que très peu de place pour que le reste de l'histoire se déroule, tout s'accélérant passé la moitié du livre. Fort déçu donc de ce deuxième opus de Ernest Cline.
Action sequences hung on a skeleton of copied (homage) bones from The Odyssey and Arthur C. Clarke. Stick figure characters, and the mom and girlfriend of the main character are especially crude. Thanks for the millionth reminder that women are seen as virgin/mother/whore/trophies.
Three stars because even bad pizza is still pizza.
The writing is SO bad. I couldn't even focus on the story with how distractingly awful every cobbled together sentence was. Ugh. Fuck this book.
Look, I wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. It felt... clichéd.
Audio performance is great as usual, but if you're looking for something new and refreshing, maybe look elsewhere. I called most of the plot points and was hoping for some twist or subversion, but it never came. As this is the author's second novel, I'm hoping it's just a sophomore stumble.
