Ampersand Book Club discussion

Taking the initiative to set up our September discussion!

Wow, for once I'm ahead of the game! Mostly because the book finally became available from hold and I knew I wouldn't be able to renew it.

This book was just okay. I think a lot of reviewers have covered this already, but it's basically a gamer geek's wet dream. The most powerful people in the world discover that there's an alien threat out there ready to annihilate humanity with their superior technology and they decide to put the fate of the planet's future into the hands of gamers?? WTF is that? I love a good fantasy but there's only so far I can suspend my disbelief, and there's no way that this would ever happen. I also tend to think that 'science fiction' means that the story has to have at least a patina of plausibility. As it stands, the entire premise was clearly the author's wish-fulfillment fantasy, of which I had zero interest.

Besides, hasn't this idea of gaming/war sim been done before? I haven't read those books, but according to the GR reviewers who have read them, Armada doesn't really add anything original to the trope.

That aside, where this novel truly fails is characterization. Okay, world is being invaded by evil aliens. I'll buy it. They snap up all the best gamers in the world to fight them off. Super ridiculous, but okay fine. I could set aside all of that if the characters were realistic and understandable. Instead, we get a main character who is so stunted he can barely go a paragraph in thought without comparing his situation with some other story he read or watched. Who does this? Who goes around thinking that every single moment of his/her life is 'oh, just like that thing that happens to xyz character in that movie'? Every single time he did that (which was 50 billion zillion times), I was thrown out of the story. I could almost visualize the author sitting there typing up each allusion and chuckling to himself at how clever he was. It was distracting and unrealistic.

The side-characters were completely two-dimensional too. I was especially annoyed by the idealized women in his life. Clearly the author has thing for geeky hot babes and MILFs.

Sadly, the only realistic portion of the plot -- drone warfare -- was also the most boring. Because really, what's interesting about watching some guy pilot a drone from the safety of his bunker? You know that something is at stake, but he spends remarkably little time on the millions of casualties that happen across the globe. Guess he couldn't be bothered to show us what they were really fighting for. Perhaps that's on par with the idea that gaming is super special important, but only if you're good enough to reach the end. Who cares about all the collateral damage?

I have to admit, all of the mediocre (and negative reviews) I've seen of the book (haven't read any aside from yours because I didn't want to come across any spoilers) make me want to avoid this book. While I enjoyed Ready Player One, I didn't worship it like some other readers did, and it seems as if the author tried and failed to duplicate that sense of nostalgia and wonder in Armada.

Understandable. I think if you have other books you'd rather read, then maybe it's worth skipping this one.

Speaking of which, I read one and half pages of Fingerpost and I got bored. Maybe it's the drawn out Dickensian manner of prose? "I'm gonna tell you a story and blah blah blah." Just get on with it! I'm seriously considering not bothering with that one, especially since it's big and heavy. Do you think it's worth it?

I'd give it more than a few pages. I think it's very readable, despite the weight and it being a genre I don't usually seek out. The book also presents the story from four different points of view (the four parts) so it's possible you might like another character's voice more.

Okay thanks! I did worry about the genre but if you like it despite not being a fan, I'll give it another go.

I'm embarrassed to say it since I was the one that picked it, but I am also struggling with Fingerpost. I have no problem abandoning it if no one else wants to carry on, though Lindsey, your review of Armada is not making me want to rush out and put my name on the list for that either, lol

Oh no, lol. Well, we can always pick a second option for September too. I was on the wait list for a couple months, so I figured I had to give it a shot when I finally got it. But if you haven't even wait-listed it yet, then maybe we should pick a back-up.

Any ideas?

The only plus I can say for this book was it was a quick read. Some parts were way too descriptive, I thought the whole premise was ridiculous, and the whole time I was thinking, I've already read this plot line - it's called Ender's Game and it's infinitely better. Also the whole end plot seemed like a ploy to add some kind of moral to the story or something. Not as good as Ready Player One, not by a long shot.