Armada: A Novel

I’ve just finished reading “Armada” by Ernest Cline. There’s a new-ish school of literature that suits science-fiction specifically, which I think of as the jump-the-shark approach. Scalzi’s “Redshirts” is a good example—the premise is based on the old insider-joke about Star Trek (the original TV series): the away-team member who wears a red shirt is the character that will be sacrificed to add suspense to the episode. In the Scalzi book, the hero finds himself thrust into what he considered a fictional setting—eventually discovering that his fate is being controlled by some outside ‘programming director’ who has misunderstood the exact role that Star Trek plays in our entertainment, and in our reality.The hilarious “Galaxy Quest” (1999), again, posits a Star-Trek-like classic TV series which an alien race have mistaken for historical non-fiction and subsequently built themselves a real starship, complete with transporter and a parroting computer-voice. They come to Earth to ask the aging star of the series to be a real captain on their starship—mayhem and comedy ensues. It’s great fun—I’m a fan of jump-the-shark, when it is done with wit and competence.Ernest Cline’s “Armada” takes a page from “The Last Starfighter” (1984) in which an ordinary teenager obsessively plays a video game that simulates space battle, only to discover that the machine is a testing device to locate talented recruits for real ‘starfighters’ struggling to defend the galaxy from evil. But Cline goes beyond jump-the-shark to ‘multiply-referential jump-the-shark’, including a backstory that involves most sci-fi movies and video games of the past forty years being both training devices for potential warriors and orientation for the whole planet’s population—preparing them to find out that much of popular science-fiction is, in fact, non-fiction.In doing this, Cline gives the reader a survey of popular science fiction and gaming culture from the premiere of the first Star Wars through to the near-future setting of the story. He pre-empts criticism of recycled plot-lines by cataloging the many ways in which his character’s story reflects the plot premises of the many films, games and stories from which he borrows.Such ingenuousness gives the story great humor and zip—the protagonist’s interior monologue is not unlike our own interior critique of the story we’re reading. And in the age of remakes, one can hardly criticize Cline for re-doing the concept of Last Starfighter—that movie is thirty years old, familiar only to old farts like myself—and the pixel-screened arcade game of that old classic is as a stone spear-head in comparison to today’s MMO-game-players and the globally interactive worlds they now inhabit.My disappointment stems from my inability to become absorbed in the story. While much ingenuity is displayed in the references to pop culture and other attempts to add a sense of realism to a highly coincidence-crammed story, the story itself never lingers long enough to give any one scene or character as much depth as is needed to balance out the fantastical aspects of the book. Worse, not a single turn of plot manages to rise above the cliché. While I hesitate to spoil the story, I can assure you that you will not be surprised. Amused, perhaps, but hardly surprised—or engaged.This style of storytelling comes close to reproducing the suspense and excitement of an action movie—and as with action movies, death can be a stumbling block. Deaths, whether of individuals or of whole populations, are seen through the lens of ‘the mission’, rather than engaged with as dramatic events, as in a ‘chick flick’—and such insularity against this most deeply human aspect of any story has caused many an action thriller to fall flat. The audience is unable to ‘will its suspension of disbelief’ in the face of too much superficiality.Conversely, young readers and sci-fi newcomers will no doubt find this a much fresher experience than I did—over the decades I’ve become a really tough audience. When the cultural references become central to the story, there is an unavoidable difference in the reaction of older readers, like me, who may find it all too familiar, and younger readers who experience a sort of ‘revelation’ from the massive download of new ideas and connections. Forty years of sci-fi cultural remixing may blow the minds of today’s teens, but it’s just old, familiar memories to someone with gray hair.Cline’s previous novel, “Ready Player One”, was likewise criticized for a lack of dimension in a NY Times book review, while USA Today wrote, "[it] undoubtedly qualifies Cline as the hottest geek on the planet right now". So there you have it—“Armada” is another Cline book that may act as a dividing line between we sci-fi ‘grandpa’s and the younger audience coming on. I still give it five stars, just because it is head and shoulders above a lot of what’s out there.

I won't bother with a plot synopsis since others have given one. Basically, it's a "geek gamers can save the world" scenario, with a couple of fairly dark twists at the end. And there's clearly the option of a sequel if Mr. Cline wants to write one, which honestly might help because it would give him room to flesh out some of the characters a bit more, which they need.Like many other reviewers, having been a huge fan of Ready Player One, I found myself slightly disappointed in Armada. It's not that it's a bad book, but it just lacks something that RPO had. I can't quite put my finger on it -- perhaps it was the charm of RPO -- but I was left feeling a bit flat. It's also quite different in tone from RPO, so don't expect the same type of scenario. Our hero is far more flawed than Wade or his friends, so that was a bit startling; it was hard at first to find myself as strongly behind him as I wanted to be simply because of a couple of his unlikeable traits. By the end I thought he'd improved quite a bit, fortunately, although more character development would have helped the book. It also felt considerably shorter than RPO; it had the same amount of plot but lacked the same quantity of character development. I don't know if that's the author's fault or the editor's, trying to keep the book to a specific length, but sometimes shorter isn't necessarily better if too much is left out.Strengths: The SF references scattered throughout were a lot of fun (particularly as I'm far more familiar with them than I was with a lot of the references in RPO), and enjoyed them a lot; that's really Mr. Cline's forte. And he can write a very engaging plot, although this plot was a bit predictable. As a lifelong fan of SF, I must admit that I greatly enjoyed the wish fulfillment aspect of the whole story premise, too.Weaknesses; While Armada started off faster than RPO, there was still too much time devoted to setup -- nearly the first half of the book -- and not enough to the denouement; the major action in the book happened in less than the final 20%, so it seemed a bit rushed. There was also one major plot hole that jumped out at me and left me rather annoyed -- but which unfortunately I can't reveal without spoilers, and if there's one thing I hate, it's reading spoilers in a review. Also, completely unrelated but a small thing that greatly aggravated me, what high school student in today's zero tolerance school climate in the USA would be able to carry a tire iron onto a school campus without being instantly expelled, gamer geek hero or not? Anyway, I suspect I noticed the plot holes more because I simply wasn't as engaged with the characters.It's a good but very fast read.. I just hope he doesn't get so caught up in trying to exploit his knowledge of all things geekily trivial that he starts neglecting characterization and engages in too much plot predictability in future books, however; he'd be doing himself a real disservice.I gave the book 4 stars because it just didn't quite live up to my hopes. Also, and I realize this is neither Amazon's nor Mr. Cline's decision, the price of the Kindle version was ridiculous, even for a new release by a popular author. Publishers, your authors are going to lose a lot of readers if you keep overpricing Kindle books to this extent!

Considero que es un libro muy bien redactado. Desde el principio me ha mantenido muy entretenido. Si les gusto Ready Player One este les va a encantar. Si no han leído RPO de todas formas les va a gustar. En especial si son fans de vídeo juegos.

First of all in not gonna tell about this book , just about the condition ,it arrived early with good condition.Not a great fan of Ernest Cline but read "Ready Player One" a great book.So gonna give this a shot

I loved Ready Player One and loved this one as well.Yet another very good book.Once again there are lots of reference to the good old times (for me).

I loved ready player one so i bought this book (this is nothing like readt player one btw) and enjoyed it it easily outmatched my explectations (review are not always right for you) thought they weren't very high because of reviews but zac why is your name a referance to war games a great book that has very interesting concepts gg ernist

I really enjoyed this book. In the tradition of "ready player one" Mr Cline makes gaming into an exciting story with an unforeseen twist.