Armada

“Too much ‘young-adult' for my taste; most of the time, it felt even child-like given the simplicity of the writing and story.

The setting and nostalgia trip are right up Ernest Cline's alley, but this time, he may have overdone it without tangible results at the ending.

Also, the inclusion of angsty teenagers and insta-love (I rest my case here).

In conclusion about the book:

- It's a so-so book, perhaps hyped by the success of Ready Player One.
- My recommendation: Go read Ready Player One (again if that's the case) instead of Armada.
- Consider subscribing and listening to the ‘Raid the Arcade' playlist on Spotify (or create your own based on the cassette tape image at the end of the book).”

This one was a bit disappointing. I loved Ready Player One in a huge way, and I kind of avoided reading Cline's sophomore effort as I heard it really didn't live up to the previous. Then I got to meet Ernie Cline at a book signing, and I just fell in love with the man. Such a sweet, charming, unabashedly nerdy guy whom I just wanted to support. So I sat down to form my own opinion.

Sadly, I ended up agreeing with the majority. Armada is similar to RPO in that it centers around video games and their application outside being games, in this case the trope of child gamer prodigy asked to use his skills to save the world from impending invasions. Also like RPO, it builds a lot of its humor and plot on nerdy references from a modern protagonist obsessed with 70s, 80s, and 90s science fiction. RPO wove these references in seemlessly and they formed the core of the story. In Armada, they just feel kind of dropped in, kicking me out of the story instead of immersing me.

Also, the characters are a bit flatter. Our hero is a real stop WMP who for some reason girls totally dig. His love interest (who shows up really only as a deux es machina to save the day with HACKING) is inexplicably interested in him despite being older, cooler, and smarter. This would have been a way different book if it was about her or really any of the other top players who are diverse, unique, and interesting (except maybe Chen who has no character besides stock asian genius). Zack is just not very interesting and doesn't have much of a believable character arc.

Not to say the book was all bad. There's a lot of popcorn fun to be had and some good subverting of the alien invasion genre, but I can't help thinking a few changes could have made it a lot better. Sorry, Ernie. I still love you, but I can't quite evangelize this one the way I do RPO.

Homenaje a los videojuegos y a las películas de CF de nuestra infancia.

Novela que empieza bien, sigue bien y acaba bien.

Creo que en los análisis que puedas leer por ahí pesa mucho la injusta comparativa con “Ready Player One”.

Estamos ante una buena historia, con guiños a infinidad de videojuegos, películas de CF, y buena música.

Totalmente recomendable.

This was pretty disappointing after the wonderful Ready Player One. It felt much more pandery and unoriginal, with nerd references thrown in willy-nilly without any real reason for them to be there. It's basically a sadly predictable cross between The Last Starfighter and a young gamer's fanfiction fantasy that validates all the endless hours of playing games he does. It would probably be better if the main character were more likable, but his short temper makes him really hard to care about and none of the other characters manage to avoid being stereotypes and don't make themselves stand out as people I should give a damn about. It gets better in the last few chapters as the invaders' intentions are revealed, and even ends on an intriguing premise for another story, but it's far too little too late. My recommendation? Just skip this and read Ready Player One instead. It feels more fresh and interesting, and is less lazy about it's nerdy references.

This story has similarities to the classic “Ender's Game” by Orson Scott Card. In fact, the main character in this story even expresses disbelief that his real life could possibly be mimicking that story. There are so many references to sci-fi, gaming, and music from the 80's that I was overcome by nostalgia and had to dig up some of my old music and games.

This was fun, loads of fun. Not as good as Ready Player One – not sure it could've been. But it taps into the same vein of pop culture, gaming, and a desire for something that's missing – family, father, social acceptance, etc. You take these elements, add a sense of humor and an adventure-driven plot and you get a winning read.

Now Zack Lightman isn't Wade Watts – he has friends, he has a great Mom (good grandparents, too, it seems), and some sort of a future. Okay, his life is a lot better than Wade's. But, it's not perfect. Especially when he – and he alone –sees a space ship from a video game outside the window of his High School. He figures he's losing his marbles. And, you have to admit, the evidence is pretty convincing.

Until the next day, when another spaceship from the game lands at school – and others see it. It's from the Earth Defense Alliance, and they've come for Zack. Not just Zack – all over the globe, they're recruiting the best players of a couple of games (one flight-based, one ground-war based) to join a global force to defend the planet from an immanent alien invasion.

On the one hand, this is a dream come true for a die-hard gamer, SF nut, and daydreamer – a chance for glory, a chance to save the world, a chance to...meet a hot programmer-slash-gamer. On the other hand, did I mention the immanent alien invasion and near-certain death of all humanity (including Zack)?

Cline doesn't give us anything new here - he takes every movie/novel/game about battles in space, alien invasions, First Contact, and so on that he's seen/read/played (and actually tells you in the narrative which are the major influences); mixes them up and gives us one, big, gooey SF mishmash. I could read that all day long. Actually, I did. And I'd gladly do it again.

Ready Player One had a very limited cast – but Cline doesn't repeat that. Zack has a couple of friends in high school, an ex-girlfriend, an old enemy, a mom, a boss. And then there's everyone in the EDA that he meets – some higher ranking officers, his teammates and a new love interest. There are common bonds between all of them, but they're not all just variations on Zack (like RPO's Wade and co.). I liked every character – even the less noble ones. These folks had heart, they had style – each one of them made me smile in a different way. It's easy to mistake Cline's stuff as a litany of pop culture references with a thin veneer of plot. But that's a mistake. His strength is the soul he puts into these characters. It's in the interpersonal relationships, emotions, stakes – that's where he shines. Even when you know something's going to happen, even when you can see it coming 10 miles away, Cline still nails it. The ability to get to the emotional core – what some might call the emotional truth – of a scene, of a connection between characters? That covers up for a lot of shortcomings.The worst thing about this book? I've read every Cline novel in existence. So the wait begins.I won my copy of this from the nice folks over at Read It Forward, if you're not checking into that site on a regular basis, you're missing something.

I listened to the audiobook version read by Wil Wheaton. At first, I had a hard time getting into it. The main character was whiny (decreased a bit over the course of the book) and I never really liked alien shoot'em games. But it started to pick up and it was a very fun book to listen to. As a regular read for the summer it was great. If you are looking for a more dense book, don't read this as it is a simple read.

This book is okay. It was a nice, light adventure through space and pop culture. It feels like what it set out to be. Nothing more, nothing less.

What I liked

- the battles were really engaging and well detailed. You knew what was where and what was happening at all times.

- the friendships and relationships, besides the romance, were written very authentically. The mother seemed really cool.

- the whole premise was out there in a good way and loved the idea of training everyone with a game.

What I didn't like (SPOILERS)

- the love interest. He must be the smoothest talking guy around if he can land a girl how he did. It didn't feel nessisary to make her anything but a friend. Even in this climate.

- I wanted to know more about the dad. He seemed really cool, but then one dimensional. I wish I could have felt more for him before the ending

- the ending. Okay, so the guys who wants to protect Earth is the bad guy because he wants to fire a weapon? They just wiped out millions of people, destroyed so much. But he's bad? Also, hey we were just testing you here's some medicine to heal everyone, wel help now after we messed everything up and killed people you love. This might create some weird distopia but it's fine. Could have just not bothered your planet but hey.

3.5/5 - I really wanted to love this as much as Ready Player One, but there were so many elements of it that seemed forced and didn't have the same flow. The characters had WAY less diversity in their personalities. That being said, I loved the idea for what Armada was as a story. It may not have been unique, but it was a type of story I LOVE. Definitely one where you get that geeky love, but not the homerun that Ready Player One was, in my opinion.

Executive Summary: Predictable Fun. It's not nearly as good as [b:Ready Player One 9969571 Ready Player One Ernest Cline https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383612s/9969571.jpg 14863741], but that's hardly surprising. 3.5 stars.Audio book: When I found out Wil Wheaton was narrating this, it was a done deal. He's the perfect narrator for certain books, and this is definitely one of those.Full ReviewI love [b:Ready Player One 9969571 Ready Player One Ernest Cline https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383612s/9969571.jpg 14863741]. It's one of my all time favorite books. It's not the best written, or the even the best story. It just hits all the right buttons for me. In fact, I reread it not to long ago and loved it just as much.I was looking forward to checking out what Mr. Cline had in store for us next. Could it be as good as his first book? Of course not, or at least I'd have been shocked if it were. However it seems like many people who loved that book were not only disappointed in this book, but downright upset.That wasn't the case for me. There a ton of similarities to Ready Player One and several stories, most notably the Last Starfighter and Ender's Game. Mr. Cline acknowledges that right away and makes it part of the narrative.Our protagonist Zach Lightman is a high school gamer who's obsessed with the games/music/movies of the past. Gee where have I read that before? This book isn't breaking any new ground. In fact it's treading on very familiar ground.I thought it started a bit slow, but once I got into it I was having a blast. That should be obvious when you see I listened to the whole thing in just two days. It's only 12 hours, but I normally average 3 hours/day. I kept finding things to do so I could keep listening.Ordinarily that kind of thing would mean a 5 star book for me, but while this book is fun, it's just not as good as others. It hits many of the same buttons as Ready Player One, just not as hard I guess. That doesn't make me mad or disappointed though.I'll probably give it another listen down the road though. The door for a sequel seems to have been left open, so maybe I'll listen to it again at that point.Not need to rush out and grab this one, but if you get it on sale, or need a light quick read, it's worth a look in my opinion.

I really liked this book. Despite the critics I read in GoodReads before starting, I found an amazing and interplanetary trip through reading. The way Cline plays between the truth and the fake makes me feel a strong connection while reading. This version of the book has at the end an introduction to his master-peace “Ready Player One”, so I'm reading it soon for sure.

Dopo aver letto Ready Player One ero molto eccitata all'idea di leggere finalmente Armada, e devo dire che non ne sono rimasta delusa.
La storia mi è piaciuta molto, sebbene l'inizio mi sia sembrato leggermente forzato. Una volta entrati nell'ottica della realtà descritta dall'autore, scorre tutto molto facilmente e con naturalezza. Mi sono piaciuti molto anche i personaggi, ben descritti e sviluppati.
Il ritmo del libro è molto interessante: dopo un inizio leggermente traballante, le scene si seguono in modo serrato, che incolla alle pagine.
Ottimo lavoro, sebbene Ready Player One resti il mio preferito dell'autore.

2nd read of Armada (as an Audible Audiobook) by Ernest Cline

Thoughts:
• I enjoyed it more the second time around more than the first. Not really sure why, but some aspects just didn't stick out as much this time as last.
• The pop culture references were pretty good, though still not nearly as good as Ready Player One.
• Still too much unnecessary language for younger readers.

Overall, I'd call this a “fun” read and recommend it to anybody who enjoyed the pop-culture references and near-Sci-Fi aspects of Ready Player One. Just don't expect it to be a sequel or nearly as good.

It was fine. More like “Ready Player Six”, I'd say.

I enjoy the occasional pop culture reference, but good lord that was a lot of them.

I knew I was in trouble when, as soon as he met a girl, I said to myself, “How much you bet he accidentally says something clever and they kiss before the day is out.”, and whaddaya know. Of course that's what happened.

Also, “The Last Starfighter” and “Enders Game” did this already, and arguably better. Still, it was a quick, mildly entertaining read.