Book Review: 'Armada' by Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline's follow up novel to 'Ready Player One' hits some of the same beats as before, with lots of Sci-Fi and gaming references but, at least for me, it lacked the charm of RPO.

'Armada' also treads the same path as 'The Last Starfighter' and 'Ender's Game', almost becoming a combination of both (and being an Ernest Cline book, of course both properties are mentioned), where our protagonist, Zack Lightman, is unwittingly recruited by the EDA (the Earth Defense Alliance), after becoming one of the best players of the best selling video game 'Armada', which, unbeknownst to the millions of players who play the game, and its ground assault counterpart 'Terra Firma', is actually a real life simulation for a war with an alien race.

It's certainly fast paced, and almost feels rushed to get through the preamble of setting up the characters and story as quickly as possible to get to the main event. As a result there didn't seem to be too much build up to the war that Zack and the other new recruits find themselves enlisted in, as no sooner do they arrive at EDA HQ and go through a briefing, there isn't much time for the characters to digest what they've just been told (and when they do it's in pop culture references instead of real emotional context), as they are suddenly under attack. It's only when Zack gets transferred to another base, do things slow down for a bit, taking time to draw breath and push on with a few plot points, before we're back into the throng once again with another alien attack. Unfortunately this means that the characters that Zack meets aren't explored with too much depth, and some are only introduced briefly before we move on with the story. Because of this, I found I only had some kind of emotional attachment to some of the characters and didn't really care about the rest.

'Armada' reads like an homage to science fiction and to video games, with many (and by many I mean A LOT!) either directly mentioned or have elements quoted from. Now I don't mind a bit of nerdiness, being a big fan of Sci-Fi myself, but instead of being liberally sprinkled with geek references, it's much more heavy handed and almost got a bit too much at times, especially in the early stages - there's even an actual list of movies and games early on - so much so that I seriously thought about marking this one down as a DNF! But I persevered and gradually enjoyed the story that was hidden amongst the references.

'Armada', treads similar territory to Cline's previous novel, and was still enjoyable at times, but I felt it was spoilt by the overuse of the many references that were woven into the story. If you enjoy science fiction and gaming, and don't mind an over saturation of Sci-Fi pop culture references, then you'll probably enjoy this book.

Book Review: 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline

Re-read 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline because of the upcoming movie, but I've not done a review, so here goes.

James Halliday, the creator of the OASIS, a free to connect massive online VR universe in which the majority of the world is logged into to escape the dystopia of real life, has died. And in the tradition of 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory' (of which this book tips its hat to), in his will he will leave his entire fortune of $250 Billion, to whoever can unlock a series of puzzles and find the Easter Egg.

I enjoyed this, it calls to my geekiness, and as someone who grew up in the 80's as well, it does hit the nostalgia button very hard! From movies, TV, games and music, there is so much referencing of the 80's and pop culture in the story. And as such, somewhat unfortunately, does come across as an 80's pop culture checklist at times. Yes, I get that in the story retro nostalgia for the 1980s is cool, because of Halliday's obsession for it, but maybe it's a bit too much, as it did make me disconnect from the story a bit. A least in the early chapters.

Once the plot gets past the introductions and gets going, it actually gets a lot better, as Cline seems to focus more on building the story instead of calling out and checking off his pop culture favourites. The High Five, Parzival, Art3mis, Aech, Shoto and Daito - the top 5 on the scoreboard and the first 5 to locate the first key in Halliday's puzzle - are all in a race, along with everyone else, to find the hallowed Halliday Easter Egg before IOI, a big communications conglomerate looking to seize control and 'monetise' the OASIS, does.

The plot may be basic but I did find it an exciting read, as we follow the main protagonist, Parzival / Wade, as he scours the OASIS VR universe for the clues to unlock the prize. He's a very likeable character, as are the others in the High Five, although they weren't explored or fleshed out as much as Wade, seeing he was the main protagonist and is told from his perspective, and Sorrento from IOI is your standard evil corporate CEO, although we don't get to see much from him.

It's a light froth of a story, but an enjoyable one at that and seems to be written for gamers, those that like to reminisce about the stuff that came out in the 1980s, and enjoy the various fandoms of geek pop culture. If you're one of those, then you'll definitely get a kick out of this.

#CoolArt: 'Armada' by Sam Spratt

Cover art by Sam Spratt for a new edition of the novel 'Armada' by Ernest Cline.