I loved Ready Player One. Hated Armada

I loved Cline's first novel, Ready Player One, because it was an exciting, intelligent plot, and an orgy of 80's nostalgia. The writing was immature, and the book had many flaws, but I forgave it everything because it was so much fun.

I was prepared to absolutely love Armada. I pre-ordered it on the first day it was possible to do so. I also listened to it the instant it became available. And I cringed my way through every painful second of it.

While the 80s nostalgia seemed to be a genuine, organic thing in Ready Player One, it seemed forced and gratuitous in Armada. Reference after reference after reference was made from the first page to the last... but unlike in Ready Player One, the referenced 80s games, movies and music serve no purpose in the story. OH, a handful of them are critical to the backstory, but 99 percent of every reference made in this book is just transparent pandering to the audience. HA! REFERENCES! HA! I REMEMBER THINGS. DO YOU REMEMBER THOSE THINGS TOO? HA! ISN'T IT FUNNY TO REMEMBER THINGS?

Next let's talk about the characters. Really there was only ONE character in the whole book: a person who loves video games, who is a nerdy outcast, smart but misunderstood, who loves 80s nostalgia, who acts inappropriately and unprofessionally, and who is social awkward. There. I've just described EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON in this entire novel.

The plot is half-baked, and Cline knows it. He deals with the problem by sweeping it under the rug. He pretends that the weirdness will be dealt with, but really he ends the book with a very rushed, very lame explanation that even the protagonist isn't happy with.

There is absolutely no nuance to the plot, either. We go from point A to point B without any plot twists, and without our main character experiencing any sort of real drama or crisis... not in the literary sense. At no point in this book do you ever get to ask yourself "How will he get out of this?!".

The dialog is lame. There is no ACTUAL humor at all. Every "joke" in the book boils down to: "HA! REFERENCES!".

I'm so incredibly disappointed in Cline. He's shown no growth at all in his writing, apparently learning nothing at all from the criticisms of his first book. And instead of doing something truly original here, he's produced an entire book that is just shameless pandering to his audience.

Like so many sequels, the author failed to understand what made his first work great, and so he repeated all the wrong things in his second work, while leaving out the heart.

464 people found this helpful

Do we really need this story?

Any additional comments?

Unfortunately for me, Armada fell flat; despite Wil Wheaton knocking it out of the park again in his reading (though there were some level issues between cuts). I would have hoped that Cline had grown as a writer after Ready Player One (RPO), but he seems to have ascribed to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra. The problem is that approach doesn't work with writing unless you're going to continue an existing story.

Here are some of my issues:

1) First Person Narrative - This worked for RPO, but I think it actually hindered the story in Armada. Cline should have gone with a traditional 3rd person narrative, especially when your core audience consists of 30 and 40 somethings with a penchant for the nostalgic. Believe it or not, we can handle more than one narrative at a time. This would have allowed him to expand the story beyond just one character's experiences.

2) Weak Character Development - When the action spun up I found myself thinking, "Why do I even care about X that just happened to Y?" or "Who was Y again?" Some characters are out of the story just a quickly as they are introduced. At one point I didn't immediately tie a particular character to one that was introduced earlier in the book, and felt a bit perturbed when I realized it.

3) Forced Pop Culture - In RPO the pop culture references felt natural in the context of the story. In Armada it's like Cline was pulling them out of a hat and inserting them at random. Had the story been set in the 80s it might have worked better, but would have worsened the effect of my next point.

4) Far-Fetched Technology - The story is supposed to take place in not-too-distant future (a few years or so). However the story introduced technology for which I suspect there aren't even theories on how it would work (and thus he just glosses over them in the story). RPO gave him freedom because of the virtual nature of the world he painted. However, for Armada it just felt wrong.

5) Stereotypical Military - As a military brat the stereotypical way in which Cline represents the military is a pet peeve of mine. I already have a pretty good idea of Cline's social views thanks to his multi-page tirade at the beginning of RPO (which he thankfully did NOT do in Armada), but in Armada he pretty much gives a giant middle finger to the military and (for the most part) conservative thinking. I don't think Cline's trying to create Orwellian like discussions around his novels (and he's nowhere near as subtle as Orwell), so he's probably better off leaving his politics out of his books.

6) Impractical Hacking - This might seem a bit nitpicky, but as a software engineer by trade it bugs me when "hackers" are thrown into stories in unbelievable ways and become major a plot device. It's just lazy writing; especially in the time frame in which the story takes place.

In the end, Armada comes off as a mash up of a classic 80s book with a classic 80s sci-fi flick. The problem is we already have those stories and really didn't need to mash them up. Where RPO was a somewhat original tale, Armada felt like the recycled Hollywood garbage that has festered in movie theaters for the last two decades. So you have to ask yourself, "Do we really need this story?"

220 people found this helpful

Lacked the freshness of Ready Player One

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I wasn't thrilled with finishing this book. I went in with very high expectations, considering how much I loved Ready Player One. There were a few decent elements of this that really showed promise, but the overall story was a Last Starfighter meets Ender's Game. I didn't think it was "terrible", but there were times I thought originality was lacking. Trying to separate out my expectations is tough, so three stars is where I decided.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I get the desire to include a romance element into the story, but this aspect was way too brief to be even slightly believable - so that's probably the main area I would change. The best parts of the book had to do with the time frame between learning the origins/effects of the game, and the actual fighting. That element was the most interesting, and offered some real opportunity. The ending was just way to predictable and too similar to other esteemed cult classics, but can one suggest a different ending?

Which character – as performed by Wil Wheaton – was your favorite?

When Wil tries to display angst or sadness in talking, it makes me smile. So rather than a particular character (there's not a whole lost of character differences), I'll have to go with Wil trying to portray the appropriate emotion. I think he does excitement, interest, smugness, non-emotion really well. Any type of negative emotion pretty much sounds like he's 9, and his friend just broke his favorite toy (sometimes that's what you want, but sometimes not). Still enjoyable :)

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Well, I'm a nerd, and it'd be a movie about a gamer becoming a real space fighter.... so um, yeah, It's a safe bet that I would go see it.

Any additional comments?

If you enjoyed Ready Player One, then you are going to read/listen to this no matter a review, so you might as well just buy it. It's not "terrible", but it's not going to be as good as Ready Player One. It's almost unfair for Cline that our expectations are unreasonably high due to how good RPO was.

219 people found this helpful

Great unless you are expecting Ready Player One

Many reviews are critical because it is not Ready Player One part 2 If that is what you are wanting, you will be disappointed. I was reluctant to purchase this due to the negative reviews and was worried it would be disappointing. I think a lot of listeners overthink it while comparing the two books. I listened to this with my 3 boys and they all loved it enough that they wanted to leave for school 10 minutes earlier so we could listen to it in the car in the school parking lot before they went in.

I was mildly disappointed feeling the ending was somewhat rushed and it went from climax to resolution very abruptly. I do agree that RP1 is the better of the two books, we have 4 people in our household that give Armada a thumbs-up review (Ages 12,13,16,40-something).

181 people found this helpful

Sophomore Slump

If you read the summary, you know going into this that it's essentially The Last Starfighter with a dash of Ender's Game for good measure. After the incredible originality and genius of Ready Player One, I suspected there was so much more to this one that could not be revealed by a publisher's blurb.

How wrong I was.

I spent the bulk of this novel knowing that Cline was in his element and so much better than this. I think what we have here is the classic example of the "sophomore slump" book.

That said... die-hard video gamers will still find plenty to enjoy about this one, as will those who live for the pop culture reference. Take it on its own and try not to compare, and it has a fighting chance to win you over. I'm largely unable to view anything in a vacuum, hence my disappointment.

Wil Wheaton once more lends his geek cred and delivers a stellar performance. He and Cline practically share the same soul on this material, so he's the natural choice to narrate all of Cline's work.

102 people found this helpful

Don’t let the other reviews comparing Armada to RP1 deter you from downloading this audiobook.

I didn’t purchase this audiobook for several months because of the earlier reviews comparing it to Ready Player One (RP1.) However, I really enjoyed the story. I can understand the earlier criticisms the short romance but I didn’t feel like it was too little or too much. I think the relationship that was most important to the story was well developed. As for the comments comparing it to RP1, Armada is a completely different story. Different time & different characters. Although, there are many 80’s pop-culture references, they’re not as important to the story in Armada as they are in RP1. Overall, I enjoyed the story and will probably listen again.

86 people found this helpful

waste of a credit

Any additional comments?

If you're like me, you probably LOVED ready player one. It went down in my top 5, and started keeping an eye on Ernest Cline. And probably like me, You saw this book, thinking this has to be at least almost as good as ready player one? Well im hear to tell you, we were all wrong. Yes this book is PACKED full of 80's and 90's geek references from arcade games, to D&D, and inspirational sci-fi movies. However the story and nostalgia we were expecting were poorly executed, and borderline lazy.

"Nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia"
In ready player one, all those references to good times in our childhood and teenage years, were actually important to explaining the believable story. Here however, its Nostalgia for the sake of Nostalgia.... 90% of the references made had no purpose, nor did they help advance the story. For instance, an event happens, the event is described, and then compared to something in geek culture, and then rinse and repeat. It's just as silly as describing what kind of plant is in the room, its color, and what type of pottery, but serves no purpose other than "Plant Nostalgia".

"a teenager's day dream"
In ready player one, the story and setting took place in a very probable future. Economy collapsing under the weight of over population, Energy crisis, and constant war. A very unhappy place to live, but with the magic of the internet and VR, people could escape their troubled lives for a few hours a day. In Armada, the biggest online multiplayer game, just so happened to be developed by the greatest minds in the game industry, just so happens to secretly be a training program, for teenagers to take part in the war against aliens using multi million dollar equipment. Also known as, a Teenagers day dream, to justify their heavy consumption of video games. This setting seems more of a personal fantasy of his from high school.

TLDR; Armada is the result of Ready Player One being so successful, that he thought he could hastily jot down his study hall day dreams into a book, slap an encyclopedia of geek culture in every other sentence, and expect it to be successful. Im sorely disappointed in Ernest Cline, he's a much better author than this, but taking advantage of our love for Ready Player One is a low blow. He lost a fan as quickly as he got one.

2 out of 5 *not worth finishing*

75 people found this helpful

The least helpful review of Armada.

It's hard to write about this book without comparing it to Ready Player One... so, I won't try. After all, it was because of Ready Player One that I've been anticipating this book for several months. It did not let me down!

There is a lot more disbelief to suspend while listening to Armada. This is because it takes place in the real world while the other book was mainly set in vertual reality where anything is possible. This story is so amazingly awesome that I had no trouble with how far fetched it was. Plus, I think being far fetched was the point.

As with the previous book there are a lot of popculture references in this one. I would like to pretend I caught them all, but the truth is that quite a few went over my head. I realize this causes my nerd credentials to go down, but what can I do?

Wil Wheaton gives another outstanding performance. Only this time I think he puts a little more heart and soul into it if that's possible. There are several places where he has to do impressions of famous people and every time he nails it.

Armada proves that Ernest Cline is not a one hit wonder. He is now one of my favorite authors. Now, quit reading reviews and start listening to this super fun novel. You won't regret it.

69 people found this helpful

A Stumble. But Great Narration!

Man, what a let down. I really wanted to like this book. But I just didn't, for the most part. If Ready Player One was your witty, geeky friend who peppers a lively conversation with the occasional, knowing pop-culture nod then Armada is the boring, geeky friend who is always trying too hard and doesn't seem to realize that spouting movie quotes isn't actually a substitute for carrying on a conversation.

It's not all bad. There are fun moments. The dissection of video game logic is fun. But the characters are so flimsy they are non-existent. It's hard to care about their fates. The female love interest, Lex, is not a character at all, just some perfect alt-girl wet dream. Everyone else is cardboard cannon fodder. And, yes, the basic plot is an "homage" to a couple stories from the 80s. It wears that on its sleeve. But, to me an homage really works best if you do something new with it. Cline tries, but his answer to that is a "big reveal" at the end that has also BEEN DONE TO DEATH. A couple times in Star Trek alone. And it's dreadfully boring.

Which leads to the writing. The incessant references and quotes get irritating after a while. Why a kid who grew up in the 90s is obsessed with 80s pop culture is explained in the story due to him trying to connect with his dead father. But, it doesn't explain why any of the other young adults in the book seem to only be obsessed with it, too. When Lex's playlist is revealed, for instance, it's all 80s music too. It just further reinforces the sense that these aren't real characters at all. Just cardboard cut-outs trundling along to the book's predictable end. Cline seems to lose interest in the book by the end, too, as a climactic scene goes into "tell don't show" mode as a series of "And then he did this and then this and then this" sentences, sucking away all the drama at a time when it really could have used it.

Also, what happens at the end doesn't really make sense to me. But, that'd be spoiler territory so I won't mention it. Just ask yourself.... "Did that really prove anything?"

This feels like a fumble. But I wouldn't swear off further books by Cline. His style is very straightforward and simple, but there's certainly some charm to it. He just needs better developed characters. And I'd steer away from pop culture-fests for a while. I listened to the audio-book, and I'll say that Wil Wheaton does a great job with it. I kind of wish I'd listened to RPO on audio, now.

67 people found this helpful

A Dreadful Second Effort

I thought Wil Wheaton mispronouncing names from the Star Wars films was going to be the worst part of the book. Then I thought the way Cline's name dropping of modern games making it seem like the book was written by a 55 year old, who hadn't actually touched a video game since Reagan was president was the worst part of the book.

By the time Zack is talking to Admiral Vance, I threw down my headphones in disgust. This story is lame, and predictable. Half of the book had passed and we'd only just covered everything in the publisher's blurb. Every time I restarted the book, more of that conversation made me turn it off again, and again.

There is no worst part of the book. It's just bad. It reads like the distilled mistakes of Ready Player One. It reads like poor fanfiction. Scenes of 80's action-scifi movies are lifted in their entirety, with lines intact and occasionally, we even get the narrator telling us which movie.

64 people found this helpful