Sunday 2 August 2015

Book Review (489): Armada - Ernest Cline


Armada

Publication: 14th July 2015
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Pages: 368
Genre: Science-Fiction
Age Appropriate: Young Adult
Buy It: Amazon + Barnes & Noble
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 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?

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.
My Thoughts.
Armada was a book that wasn't on my radar at all until I was offered the chance to review it, that's not to say I've never heard of Ernest Cline, his book Ready Player One is extremely popular and a book that I hope to get around to purchasing and reading at some point, what had me excited about Armada was the concept, while I'm not a big science-fiction fan nor a video gamer there was just something that drew me in to the idea, and I'm so happy to say that I loved this book!

Everything in this book worked from the action packed storyline that kept me on my toes as I anxiously made my way to the end and the pop references scattered throughout of video games, movies and tv shows, I found myself going with the flow and even forgetting at times that I was reading a story that was science-fiction based, Ernest has a way of having the reader lose themselves in the story so much that a genre you're not really familiar with or a big fan of becomes truly exciting and hard to put down.

Armada was a story that I couldn't really find a fault with, I perhaps would have liked a different result at the end, no spoilers but everyone who has read this book will probably know what I'm talking about, but in saying that I know why it was written that way, why I guess it had to happen that way, that's not to say I'm happy with the decision at all, but that's just me being sentimental.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this book, because of Ernest I may expand my reading preferences and give other science-fiction books a go, I do know that I will definitely be getting to Ready Player One A.S.A.P, if Armada is anything to go by I'm going to love that book too, this book made for a very pleasurable reading experience after a bad reading slump.

Highly recommended/

I give this 5/5 stars.


ERNEST CLINE 
has worked as a short-order cook,
fish gutter, plasma donor,
elitist video store clerk, and tech support drone.
His primary occupation, however,
has always been geeking out,
and he eventually threw aside those other promising career paths
to express his love of pop culture full-time as a spoken word artist and screenwriter.
His 2009 film Fanboys, much to his surprise, became a cult phenomenon.
These days Ernie lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, their daughter,
and a large collection of classic video games.


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