Armada by Ernest Cline
Blurb:
Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.
My Reaction:
(This was a shared read-aloud with Donald.)
This really isn't good (in my ever-so-humble opinion).
The only reason I was willing to read Armada at all (at Donald's suggestion) was so we could continue with the "podcast book club" we listened to as we read our way through Ready Player One. It was one of those weird situations where you start a book knowing you probably won't like it, simply for the perverse "pleasure" of marveling over just how bad and ridiculous it is.
I could go into the details of what makes it bad, but there are plenty of reviews that have already done so (and I didn't take notes). A short, generalized list? It copies too freely from other movies/books that did the story better. The characters aren't believable. It's largely predictable. The action scenes put me to sleep. Implausible, ludicrous things happen and are said and done for no apparent reason. Bottom line? It's not very good.
However, I will say that I don't think this novel is particularly worse than Ready Player One, so I don't understand why RPO (currently, at least) has such a higher rating than Armada. Neither book seems especially original to me, neither has much literary value-- and at least Armada didn't subject me to detailed descriptions of characters playing crappy old video games. (Apologies if you love those old video games. To a non-gamer like myself, they are so incredibly boring to read about. Gameplay descriptions don't belong in a novel, no matter how much the author enjoys actually playing the game.) If you're going to like one, why not the other? Apparently people were willing to overlook the same shortcomings in RPO, for some reason.
If you're of a certain temperament and sense of humor, you might enjoy reading Armada specifically to goggle and guffaw. Consider the 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back podcast for a guided tour of the absurdities; it may help motivate you to read through the rough patches. There are some true gems in there, but you will struggle through the action sequences. (Honestly, you can probably just skip 99% of those and not miss a thing.)
While skimming a few Armada reviews before writing my own, I saw someone mention that a sequel to RPO is in the works. If that ever comes to fruition-- and if the "372 Pages" podcast tackles it-- I suppose we might end up reading that one too... (Not sure if I should hope for or against it, at this point.)
On a related note, we've yet to see the Ready Player One film adaptation. We're waiting for the Rifftrax treatment to be released, to make it more palatable.
