Book Review: Armada, by Ernest Cline

I have to say, when I ordered this book from Amazon, I was concerned with the initial reviews from the first week of release.  They were were all over the place, and kind of reminded me of the publication of the last two books of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons) - there were almost as many negative reviews as there were positive (and I will admit, I am done with that fantasy series at this point - I was not enjoying these last two books, and will stick with the HBO Game of Thrones series going forward, because it is AWESOME) .

In general, Armada was not as highly rated as Ready Player One.  I also saw many comments that this book was essentially the same story as The Last Starfighter (LS) or Ender's Game (EG).  After reading the book, that seems like comparing Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica (the old or the new - take your pick) and calling them the same story.

While there are some similarities, for me this story was fundamentally different, and expanded on the basic idea from both LS and EG.  I read both books in the 1980's when they were released while I was in high school, and I saw the LS movie shortly after I finished the book, and I love all three of them (I'm currently avoiding the EG movie given the bad reviews).  Of course, there are also elements from many other works of fiction, which is pretty much evident in most movies and books these days.

All of these observations weren't enough to make me not want to read Armada.  After all, if I had assumed that The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was essentially the same good vs. evil fantasy trilogy as The Lord of the Rings, I would have missed out on a fantastic series, which overall I felt was a superior story, which became even more interesting when the second trilogy came out.

As with Ready Player One, I enjoyed the pop-culture references from my childhood.  There is something very satisfying about having some of your passions from your formative years being a major part of a work of fiction.  Those who grew up in the 1980's who have read either book will know what I am talking about.  Many of them are explicitly referenced, identifying the movie or video game of origin, but there are also some that you are just expected to know, and I have to admit there was at least one that I didn't recognize.  There are also some nice cameo appearances by various non-fictional carbon-based life forms as well.

Overall, I found this to be an engaging story, and I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next.  I enjoyed this just as much as Ready Player One, and it was a fast and interesting read.  While I did speculate about where things were going, I wasn't always sure, and I was frequently wrong.  There were also some surprises.

I'm looking forward to to his next effort.