Armada by Ernest Cline
I loved Ready Player One and I can't wait for the movie (plus, Simon Pegg!). So I was really excited about Armada. But was it worth it?
Armada follows Zack Lightman, a boy with some anger issues thanks to a dad who died very young when Zack was just a baby. He grew up idolizing his father, a video game nerd, and following in his gamer footsteps. But, as he reads his father's old journals, he starts to wonder if perhaps Pops wasn't a little off his rocker. He began writing about conspiracies involving a couple of video games that don't appear to actually exist. One day at school, when Zack notices a space ship from one of his favorite games, Armada, zooming around outside, he begins to wonder if maybe the crazy apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
One of the more fascinating elements of this novel is the (clearly) well researched history of the video game industry. We know how technology has changed; we watch it change practically everyday (virtual reality, people! who'da thunk it when I was a kid?). Even though it was interspersed with the fake games to create a plot point, seeing a mini-history of video games alongside other pop cultural references was pretty interesting.
But I eventually found the pop cultural references a little overwhelming. There's a lot here. Not just referenced but actually mentioned. The Last Starfighter is heavily referenced, for good reason. I saw a lot of Ender's Game in the plot, some War of the Worlds, even the TV show Chuck.
It took me a while to get into the storyline. Eventually, though, I got a little more into it. Was it as good as Ready Player One? No. Was it entertaining? Absolutely! I think Cline is becoming a new go-to author, one I will always look forward to, even if I don't find them as wowing as the first, much like Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Armada follows Zack Lightman, a boy with some anger issues thanks to a dad who died very young when Zack was just a baby. He grew up idolizing his father, a video game nerd, and following in his gamer footsteps. But, as he reads his father's old journals, he starts to wonder if perhaps Pops wasn't a little off his rocker. He began writing about conspiracies involving a couple of video games that don't appear to actually exist. One day at school, when Zack notices a space ship from one of his favorite games, Armada, zooming around outside, he begins to wonder if maybe the crazy apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
One of the more fascinating elements of this novel is the (clearly) well researched history of the video game industry. We know how technology has changed; we watch it change practically everyday (virtual reality, people! who'da thunk it when I was a kid?). Even though it was interspersed with the fake games to create a plot point, seeing a mini-history of video games alongside other pop cultural references was pretty interesting.
But I eventually found the pop cultural references a little overwhelming. There's a lot here. Not just referenced but actually mentioned. The Last Starfighter is heavily referenced, for good reason. I saw a lot of Ender's Game in the plot, some War of the Worlds, even the TV show Chuck.
It took me a while to get into the storyline. Eventually, though, I got a little more into it. Was it as good as Ready Player One? No. Was it entertaining? Absolutely! I think Cline is becoming a new go-to author, one I will always look forward to, even if I don't find them as wowing as the first, much like Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
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