Zack Lightman is a few months from graduating high school. Soon he'll be free to spend his time playing his favorite video game, Armada. One day, Zack thinks he sees a spaceship, an enemy ship from the game floating over his school. Zack thinks he's losing it but could he be the hero earth needs?
Zack's dad died in a explosion at the waste management plant he worked at when Zack was a baby. Zack's mom has raised him and while she's a good parent, Zack misses having a dad. When Zack's not playing Armada, he spends time looking at his dad's old books and movies. Here Cline brings in a lot of 70's and 80's sci fi movie and video game references. Where Ready Player One was about 80's pop culture, Armada is about sci fi movies and games. This is probably why I didn't love Armada as much as Ready Player One. While I'm a Star Wars fan, I'm not well versed in all the 80's sci fi. Although I did get some of the references, a large majority didn't register. Also I thought Cline spent a lot of time on the game mechanics of Armada. Armada isn't a game I would play so I found the detail tedious.
Overall, I liked Armada. It didn't elipse my love of Ready Player One but it was still a fun time. I choose to read Armada this time around but I'll get the audiobook sometime later. Others who share their thoughts on Armada: A Dribble of Ink, We The Nerdy, and MuggleNet.
The audio for Armada was good but it felt so similar to Ready Player One (same narrator and tone) that it kind of dulled the book for me a bit. My husband still really enjoyed it but not as much.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes...details so tedious!! ;)