06/22/2015
What if the X-Files were a “fictional alien cover-up created to conceal real one”? Cline (Ready Player One) makes this kind of paranoia intriguing in an SF novel whose strong opening compensates for a less gripping ending. After Zack Lightman’s father died in an accident, the teen distracted himself with gaming, achieving one of the world’s top scores in a human vs. alien invaders game called Armada. To Zack’s astonishment, one morning he looks out of his classroom window in Beaverton, Wash., and sees a Sobrukai Glaive, one of the enemy ships from that game. Skeptical of his own senses, Zack flees school to take a more careful look at his father’s writings, only to find an unsettling level of conspiracy thinking. Zack soon finds the connection between his vision and his father’s theories, at which point the story becomes more conventional and less imaginative. The plot holes get harder to ignore as the conclusion approaches, but the book’s beginning offers glimpses of Cline’s significant potential. (July)
Nerd-gasmic . . . another science fiction tale with a Comic-Con's worth of pop-culture shout-outs.”—Rolling Stone
“An amazing novel [that] proves Cline has the ability to blend popular culture with exciting stories that appeal to everyone.”—Associated Press
“A fantastic second novel . . . fans of Ready Player One, it is time to rejoice.”—HuffPost
“A joyous, rollicking read . . . will garner Cline an even larger group of fans than the formidable crew he’s already assembled.”—Boing Boing
“A great romp . . . Cline (ever the fanboy) is both reverent of and referential to the books and movies and games of his childhood.”—Mother Jones
“Video games come to life in this witty, extraterrestrial thriller.”—New York Post
“Built like a summer blockbuster . . . Cline recombines the DNA of Ender’s Game, Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, and old-school arcade games like Asteroids into something that’s both familiar and unpredictable. It’s a mutant homage to sci-fi tropes past.”—Gawker
“Hugely entertaining…a paean to the videogames of a bygone era, and like Ready Player One it is a tremendous amount of fun for anyone who remembers that time and played those games.”—George R.R. Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Game of Thrones
“A novel so fun, you’ll want to reboot it and read it again . . . the best novel this gamer geek has read in a long, long time.”—Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool
“Those conspiracies you imagined when you were fourteen turn out to be true in this masterful tale of Earth’s desperate struggle against a powerful alien foe.”—Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian
“Armada proves Ernie Cline is the modern master of wish fulfillment literature—and of reminding us to be careful what we wish for.”—John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Old Man’s War
“With another winning teen protagonist in Zach, Cline mines the nostalgia and geek spheres just as successfully as he did in his acclaimed debut, Ready Player One. The works that obviously influenced the story line, such as Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and the films The Last Starfighter and Star Wars, feel like homages rather than borrowings- a rap artist sampling the best beats our there to create an irresistible jam.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Cline once again brings crackling humor and fanboy knowledge to a zesty, crowd-pleasing, countdown-clock, save-the-planet tale featuring an unlikely hero, adrenaline-pumping action, gawky romance, and touching family moments. . . . Cline’s sly, mind-twisting premise and energetically depicted and electrifying high-tech battles make for smart, frenetic, and satisfying entertainment.”—Booklist (starred review)
★ 06/15/2015
Living in the shadow of the father he never knew, Zachary Lightman is devoted to all things sf, especially video games such as Armada, in which he can pilot drones and fight an alien enemy attacking Earth. One afternoon as he sits in class during the final days of his senior year of high school, Zach sees a flying saucer outside the window. And not just any flying saucer: a Glaive Fighter, just like the enemy ships from the game. Zach fears that he's going crazy, but he soon discovers that the skills he has been honing on video games might be the key to saving the world. VERDICT With another winning teen protagonist in Zach, Cline mines the nostalgia and geek spheres just as successfully as he did in his acclaimed debut, Ready Player One. The works that obviously influenced the story line, such as Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the films The Last Starfighter and Star Wars, feel like homages rather than borrowings—a rap artist sampling the best beats out there to create an irresistible jam. [See Prepub Alert, 3/9/15.]—MM
11/01/2015
High schooler Zack Lightman is staring out of the window during class one day and sees what appears to be a Glaive fighter, an alien ship from his favorite video game, Armada. Zack isn't imagining things. The aliens are real, they are on the attack, and it's up to the gamers of the world to save humanity. While some plot elements are unsurprising, Cline has created a fast-paced story with so much excitement and drama that readers will be happy to go along for the ride. Readers learn that some popular conspiracy theories are true: video games really have been used to train people to defend the Earth against aliens, with the leaderboards used to find the best fighters; science fiction movies and television shows have been funded by the government with the intention of getting the general population used to the idea that aliens do exist; and the world's most famous scientists, including Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan, have all had a hand in it. This compelling story is made even richer through different perspectives brought by the diverse group of elite gamers tasked with leading the fight. Fans of the author's Ready Player One (Crown, 2011) will not be disappointed. VERDICT Although this is a great book for teen gamers, Cline's sophomore effort with young protagonists and questions about alien civilizations and government secrets will also appeal to fans of science fiction and conspiracy theories.—Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA
2015-06-03
From the author of Ready Player One (2011), another book centered around video games and the 1980s. Teenager Zack Lightman loves playing games online with his friends, although any similarities to teenagers of today end there. He's obsessed with '80s science fiction, ostensibly because it's a way to fill the void left by his dead father. In the attic, Zack finds not only his dad's favorite movies on VHS, but also a detailed conspiracy theory his father wrote when he was 19, claiming video games and movies about alien invasions have been secretly funded by a shadowy organization to prepare humanity for the real thing. It's a crazy theory that, of course, turns out to be absolutely true. When aliens invade, Zack is whisked away to a secret training facility where he learns the game he's devoted years of his life to playing has always been an advanced tactical simulation, much like the plot to the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter. Now, Zack and his fellow gamers must step up and defend Earth for real. In the hands of a more skilled writer, the book could have drawn on familiar stories to launch into a new science-fiction adventure. Instead, it offers little more than interminable video game-style battles and timeworn tropes, including a plot twist that can be seen coming for miles. Zack's love interest is impossibly attractive, swigs booze from an R2-D2 flask, and laughs at all his jokes—a nerd-fantasy centerfold and just as one-dimensional. Meanwhile, Zack's two friends are indistinguishable from one another and do little more than argue over geek minutiae, because as everyone knows, that's all nerds ever do. However, in the end, it's the unrelenting references to '80s movies that squander any possible tension in the narrative. Readers never doubt whether the good guys will win because they're constantly reminded: good guys always win in the movies. A hackneyed sci-fi spectacle.
