NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A rollicking alien invasion thriller that embraces and subverts science-fiction conventions, from the author of the worldwide phenomenon Ready Player One
“Exciting . . . mixes Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, Independence Day, and a really gnarly round of Space Invaders.”—USA Today • “A thrilling coming of age story.”—Entertainment Weekly
Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. And too often, he catches himself wishing that some fantastic, impossible, world-altering event could arrive to whisk him off on a grand spacefaring adventure.
So when he sees the flying saucer, he's sure his years of escapism have finally tipped over into madness.
Especially because the alien ship he's staring at is straight out of his favorite videogame, a flight simulator callled Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting Earth from alien invaders.
As impossible as it seems, what Zack's seeing is all too real. And it's just the first in a blur of revlations that will force him to question everything he thought he knew about Earth's history, its future, even his own life--and to play the hero for real, with humanity's life in the balance.
But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can't help thinking: Doesn't something about this scenario feel a little bit like . . . well . . . fiction?
At once reinventing and paying homage to science-fiction classics, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a coming-of-age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you've ever read before.
First of all, let's just say something that should be clear: ARMADA IS NOT READY PLAYER ONE!! a lot of people complains that this book is not as clever or as innovative as RPO, but comparing this two books is like comparing Harry Potter and The Casual Vacancy: JK Rowling has written both, but it's absurd to say that the second is a let down just because it's not about a magical school! Anyway, Armada as a book IMHO is clever and imaginative enough to be read and enjoyed easily, at least in the first part. This book is about videogames and, as the main protagonist says to us, to properly enter in a fictional world about an alien invasion a huge dose of suspension of disbelief is necessary. That's what Zach keeps telling us: in every game parts of the plot is totally absurd and convenient for the player and consequently this is also what happens in Zach reality as soon as the videogames interacts with his world. For some people, I think especially gamers, this kind of convenience is ordinary and not bothering, but for me sadly seemed sloppy. Too many things happen without any logic and just because the plot needs it. Another thing that bugged me was the overly detailed information about Armada (military ranks, differences between spaceships and so on), in addition to Zach's dad research about historical videogames. I'm not a gamer but I did a Videogames history course at uni so I was mildly interested in all the informations contained in that research, but you can easily skip it if you're bored. Another thing this book lacks is character depth: all the main protagonists seems different copies of the same nerd prototype, everyone is obsessed with sci-fi and every once in awhile they all talk using cool cultural references... This is just absurd. Anyway, for me this book could have been a 4* reading thanks to the exciting plot and all the cool nerd background dear to me, but the ending was just too hideous. I don't wanna spoil anything but let's just say the aliens motives were just stupid. So incredibly stupid. The ending made me so angry that I wanted to give the book 2*! In the end I settle down with 3. I don't know if it fully deserves them.
