Armada

by Ernest Cline Narrated by Wil Wheaton

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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)

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169467260
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/14/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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Excerpted from "Armada"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Ernest Cline.
Excerpted by permission of Crown/Archetype.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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