DO YOU REMEMBER THOSE THINGS TOO? HA! ISN'T IT FUNNY TO REMEMBER THINGS? Next let's talk about the characters. OH, a handful of them are critical to the backstory, but 99 percent of every reference made in this book is just transparent pandering to the audience. but unlike in Ready Player One, the referenced 80s games, movies and music serve no purpose in the story. Reference after reference after reference was made from the first page to the last.

While the 80s nostalgia seemed to be a genuine, organic thing in Ready Player One, it seemed forced and gratuitous in Armada. And I cringed my way through every painful second of it. I also listened to it the instant it became available. I pre-ordered it on the first day it was possible to do so.

I was prepared to absolutely love Armada.

The writing was immature, and the book had many flaws, but I forgave it everything because it was so much fun. I loved Cline's first novel, Ready Player One, because it was an exciting, intelligent plot, and an orgy of 80's nostalgia. familiar?Īrmada is at once a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming-of-age adventure, and an alien-invasion tale like nothing you've ever heard before - one whose every minute is infused with author Ernest Cline's trademark pop-culture savvy. Yet even as he and his new comrades scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught, Zack can't help thinking of all the science-fiction books, TV shows, and movies he grew up reading and watching and wonder: Doesn't something about this scenario seem a little too. 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. Because the UFO 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 the Earth from alien invaders.īut what Zack's seeing is all too real. Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer.Ī minute later he's sure of it. He's daydreaming through another boring math class, with just one more month to go until graduation and freedom - if he can make it that long without getting suspended again. It's just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. The new novel from the best-selling author of Ready Player One

Armada audio book