Armada by Ernest Cline Review

Title: Armada
Author: Ernest Cline
Pages: 349
Published: July 14th 2015 by Crown Publishing
Source: Library
Links: goodreads, 
Ernest Cline.com

It’s just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. He's daydreaming through another boring math class, with just one more month to go until graduation and freedom—if he can make it that long without getting suspended again.Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer.At first, Zack thinks he’s going crazy. A minute later, he’s sure of it. Because the UFO he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.But what Zack’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it. Yet even as he and his new comrades scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught, Zack can’t help thinking of all the science-fiction books, TV shows, and movies he grew up reading and watching, and wonder: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little too… familiar?

Disappointing.  That is really the main feeling I have after reading this book.  I had such high hopes after reading Cline's Ready Player One. Was this even the same author????  The story was way too similar to Ender's Game.  Aliens are coming to Earth so the government uses video games to secretly train civilians to fight.   There is a huge chunk of the book that just goes over getting ready for this war.  On and on we get so much detail about the ships.. and about bases.  The pop culture references are pushed too hard in this book.  The references flowed easily in Ready Player One where in Armada Cline pushes the references in even if they don't go.   He makes sure to mention EVERY SINGLE alien movie there is in the book.

The ending was disappointing to me also.  It was just kind of something I've heard before .. and then it was like Cline wasn't happy with the ending because he starts having the characters question their own decisions. I am quite shocked that this book has a 3.5 rating on goodreads.  Who out there is loving this book??  The whole gamers are going to save the world thing is hard for me to buy.  Supposedly when the world finds out about the aliens coming everyone runs to internet cafes... handheld devices and all these internet places to jump online and help out.  Really... people who have never gamed before are now just going to play games???  I can't even imagine my parents jumping on and doing this.  I myself am a gamer so I would... but someone who's not.  I just don't see it.  Plus... the servers would have to be enormous for the gaming system to be able to have millions of people playing at one time all around the world.

The book just wasn't that great.  Ready Player One is sooo good though so I am sorry for people who read Armada and then don't bother with Cline's other book.  I really think that this book is a dud and just don't waste your time reading it or thinking it's going to be a great geeky book.  It's just not. 

2 stars