Armada
Armada was a great read. I hadn’t read Ready Player One, so I only knew that everyone seemed to like Ernest Cline. First, lets talk about the dust jacket for Armada. I’m glad I received the hardcover from Blogging For Books. Opposite of the cover is a blueprint of the Sobrukai Glaive. Although my dust jacket was folded weird, I usually remove it before reading anyway. The blueprint is pretty cool, and if you’re a super nerd, it’s suitable for framing.As many have said, Armada isn’t anything new story-wise. The Last Starfighter is often cited, and for good reason: the premise is identical. But Cline does such a great job telling the story that it really doesn’t matter. The action is great, and the story mostly believable. Being former military, the idea of kids getting field ranks of lieutenant and captain is laughable, but hey, it’s fiction.
I had planned on only reading a few chapters before writing projects, but five hours later my wife was forcing me to eat dinner. Very few books these days can enthrall me to finish in a single sitting, so it was cool to do that. I didn’t get much writing done, but hey, that’s life, right?
Armada was chock full of pop culture and video gaming references. I even LOL’d at a specific interaction between the protagonist and his mom. I got all the references with little difficulty, so I guess this book was written for someone like me.
I loved Armada, and recommend it to anyone who is a gamer. If you can pick up the hard cover, it has the cool dust jacket. Otherwise, read away and immerse yourself in the story.
