30 April 2016

Armada by Ernest Cline

★★★★★
Goodreads | Amazon
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? 

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.

I had a lot of fun reading Ernest Cline’s Armada. It took me on a far-fetched adventure with teenaged Zack Lightman, as he discovers that the science fiction he loves (in all its forms, like books, movies, and especially video games) has been preparing him for an imminent alien invasion. Funny, nerdy, and full of both pop culture references and spaceship action, Armada is an enjoyable read that has a lot happening to its characters in a short amount of time. I really liked it and would easily recommend it to fellow science fiction readers.

Thanks to Blogging for Books, I received a copy of Armada and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.

No comments:

Post a Comment