Armada Review

For those who have read this blog for a long time, you might remember that I loved Ready Player One by Ernest Cline when I wrote my review for it back in 2011. Effortlessly mixing pop culture with a futuristic scavenger hunt plot, that book was great. I have definitely been waiting for the movie to come out and I was glad to hear that there was a second book by Mr. Cline for me to try, Armada.

Armada is not a sequel to Ready Player One, it is a standalone novel set on Earth in the near future. In Armada, the story is told by Zack Lightman, a high school student and world-class player of the game Armada. In the Armada game and its companion game, Terra Firma, Zack (and millions of people around the world) fly drone fighter planes or drone robots and use them to try and stop a fictional alien invasion of Earth. Things get interesting from there.

Armada is dripping with references to science fiction video games, movies, TV shows and books just like Ready Player One. In the first chapter alone, you will lose count of how many nods there are to (if you are a certain age) the games you loved growing up. (Where is Missile Command on my iPad? Did I miss it in the app store?).  To go along with that, you have the typical hero's journey going on here. Zack is a kid with only one parent, having lost his dad when he was very little, who has skills but little direction as to what he wants to do with himself and over the course of the book is plucked out of his comfort zone and forced to step up and achieve his potential.

Armada is a fun book. Mr. Cline knows how to weave the nostalgia and geekery into the broader story and while some of the plot twists are telegraphed a little too much, they aren't disappointing when they happen as you think they might. Not as unique a story as Ready Player One, Armada still satisfies and is a fine addition to Mr. Cline's growing body of work. If you like video games, science fiction tropes and a fun story, go get a copy of Armada right now. We may even get a movie of it like we may for Ready Player One. Armada gets 4 Mick Happies. Now I am off to play a video game.