Armada won’t set any new standards in fiction like its predecessor did, but you’ll still have a good time along the way. Thankfully, for as much as the story borrows from films, shows, and books of the past (like Ender’s Game, The Last Starfigher and Photon), Cline has blended it up enough to keep it fresh.
Readers of Cline’s past work expecting Armada to be new and groundbreaking will be disappointed, as Armada is much more of an adaptation than new material. It’s like 1980s science fiction and action films had an orgy, and thirty-one years later The Last Starfighter gave birth to Armada. Armada’s plot is an amalgam of many of the stories it references. People from around the globe are drafted to fight an interstellar war they’ve known nothing about, including our hero, sixth ranked Armada player Zach Lightman. The governments of the world developed video games and science-fiction entertainment to prepare humanity for a forthcoming invasion from space, an invasion that is apparently hours away at the start of the novel. Cline’s plot in Armada is at least somewhat similar in theme, though certainly less nefarious. I was once told by my crazy great aunt that video games were a secret first strike weapon developed by Japan in order to turn Americans into fat, lazy sheeple, ripe for conquering. The Last Star Eagle Goes to Battle School
The question is: does Cline replicate the success he found in Ready Player One? Let’s find out…with minimal spoilers.ġ. It’s the story of Zack Lightman, a completely average, normal nerdy teen who discovers that his favorite video game is a lot more important than just entertainment. Less than a week later, it’s ranked 59th overall on the Amazon Best Sellers page, with a visit to the New York Times bestseller list almost guaranteed in the near future. Last week, Cline’s second novel Armada hit book shelves everywhere.
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