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A review by katieinca
Armada by Ernest Cline
3.0
You're probably wondering how this compares to [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One|Ernest Cline|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383612s/9969571.jpg|14863741].
Well. It's a slower start and a more abrupt end. There's a similar level of action and flavor of wit, with corresponding levels of page turning compulsion, at least once you get about a third of the way in. Like RPO most of it is from the perspective of the protagonist, and in his head, but the supporting cast is more thinly drawn here.
The heart of RPO was friendship, and hardscrabble kids making good. For Armada it's more about family, woven around things about responsibility and authority.
The references are again thick on the ground. In RPO they were color and texture, and it didn't necessarily matter if you got them or not (and I say this as someone who knew I was missing plenty). They were there to charm. Here they feel more like gatekeeping. Chestbump? Secret handshake? Something like that. Characters (and therefore readers) who get the references are cooler than those who don't: in RPO everyone had very concrete reasons to study things like 80s video games, but here in Armada it's just about personal taste.
The first third of the book delivers a spot on 80s movie(/game/book) feeling. At least some of this is intentional - self-aware-tropes, ahoy! Everything you want to point to to compare it to, it's already pointing out to you. Okay, fine. But how much? I mean, right down to the stock high school characters of bully and checked out teacher, the Serious Talk with Concerned Mom about Your Future ... and the almost complete lack of female characters, it's straight out of '80s Movies 101. You've got the barely mentioned ex-girlfriend, the mom, and everybody else is dudes, probably white ones. Then Stuff Starts Happening and suddenly everyone varies "drastically in age, gender, and ethnicity." Direct quote. So now we're in 20-something-teen. It's either subtle or accidental, and it's one of those times when I honestly don't know if the author is worse or better than I thought they were. I will be picking friends' brains for their opinions.
Thanks to the folks at ALAAC15's Penguin Random House booth for the ARC.
Well. It's a slower start and a more abrupt end. There's a similar level of action and flavor of wit, with corresponding levels of page turning compulsion, at least once you get about a third of the way in. Like RPO most of it is from the perspective of the protagonist, and in his head, but the supporting cast is more thinly drawn here.
The heart of RPO was friendship, and hardscrabble kids making good. For Armada it's more about family, woven around things about responsibility and authority.
The references are again thick on the ground. In RPO they were color and texture, and it didn't necessarily matter if you got them or not (and I say this as someone who knew I was missing plenty). They were there to charm. Here they feel more like gatekeeping. Chestbump? Secret handshake? Something like that. Characters (and therefore readers) who get the references are cooler than those who don't: in RPO everyone had very concrete reasons to study things like 80s video games, but here in Armada it's just about personal taste.
The first third of the book delivers a spot on 80s movie(/game/book) feeling. At least some of this is intentional - self-aware-tropes, ahoy! Everything you want to point to to compare it to, it's already pointing out to you. Okay, fine. But how much? I mean, right down to the stock high school characters of bully and checked out teacher, the Serious Talk with Concerned Mom about Your Future ... and the almost complete lack of female characters, it's straight out of '80s Movies 101. You've got the barely mentioned ex-girlfriend, the mom, and everybody else is dudes, probably white ones. Then Stuff Starts Happening and suddenly everyone varies "drastically in age, gender, and ethnicity." Direct quote. So now we're in 20-something-teen. It's either subtle or accidental, and it's one of those times when I honestly don't know if the author is worse or better than I thought they were. I will be picking friends' brains for their opinions.
Thanks to the folks at ALAAC15's Penguin Random House booth for the ARC.