Starting Armada, I wasn't that into it, not like Ready Player One, which kind of right off the bat had me hooked. I like post-apocalyptic dystopia ugly reality type settings. This one took a little longer for me to get into.
Armada follows Zack Lightman, a dreamer and video game geek/guru. He even works at used video game store (my husband's dream job, haha). The strangeness starts early, when he sees a flying saucer, exactly like the one in a video game called Armada he just happens to be hooked on.
Digging deeper, he uncovered his deceased father's notes regarding a great gaming conspiracy (I totally learned about Polybius, which was a neat story) and it turns out to all be true. Gamers are training to save the world.
Full of sci-fi/fantasy geeky references, it can be a bit off-putting for the casual reader who picks this up. I, however, cringingly realized I knew or at least understood most of them. I enjoyed the book as a whole. It's not too difficult to discern where everything is going, but it was a fun, breezy read regardless.
I appreciate Cline's influences, because they are so much my own world and he is obviously passionate about many levels of geekdom. I recently watched Atari:Game Over and he makes an appearance for what has to be one of the greatest solved video game mysteries of all time. He shows up with a full size E.T in the passenger seat of his car. His DeLorean. With that level of dedication, you know he knows his nerd stuff.
Which is one of the reason's Ready Player One worked so well, and why Armada is a worthwhile second book to check out if you are a fan of his first novel. Don't expect crazy depth here, but you'll get a good ride.
So long, nerds.
(Oh! And the inside jacket is totally blueprints for the fighter. Pretty cool.)
(*This book was received for free from Blogging For Books for review.)
No comments:
Post a Comment