SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

What are your final thoughts on this book?

Myself? I was really disappointed. I wasn't expecting a Ready Player One sequel but I was hoping for a book as fun. I didn't get it. It was cliched and almost painful to read. If Ernest Cline releases another book I might wait and see before I approach it.

Honestly, I too was really disappointed in this book. UGHHH. I just think this was trying too hard to add in pop culture references. The story went on and on about this upcoming battle... and then honestly the way it ended had me scratching my head. The fact that this came from the same author as Ready Player One really surprises me.

Not as good as RPO, but still a lot of fun I think.

Parts of it were fun, but it was mostly a chore to read and most of the time I was not eager to go back to reading it.
There were also parts that even in the highly fictionalized world did not make any sense. For example, during battle, Zack disobeys a direct order to not pursue the aliens. He chases the aliens anyway and causes a huge explosion on his own EDA side, they lose zillions in equipment - and basically say, well, don't do that next time. I would have thought he'd be sent in front of a laser firing squad. This really pushed it.

Then before a big battle his father's friend is smoking pot. It was sort of funny, but really.

The dialog kept getting in the way and I started wishing he would forget dialog. The whole book was really too long.

Toward the end I was becoming interested, but then the ending, oh dear, it felt like 'take me to your leader'.

So, some fun, but overall just did not make it.

It seemed to me that he boxed himself in by envisioning an arc that was not highly dependent on any of the characters. He would have done better to basically start the book where it ended and then delve into the relationships. maybe that is where he will succeed, in the sequal.

I have not been active in the group for years (I used to post a lot:-)) even though I have read a couple of novels when they were announced as group reads.

I have not read RPO either, so for me it is hard to compare. It was definitely an engaging read, and I enjoyed the audio version of the novel. The novel per se is tribute to the other iconic sci-fi novelEnder's Game, but it has never been mentioned in the novel; thus, Armada has hundreds of explicit refenreces to popular sci-fi first contact novels, TV shows, and movies, but it never mentions the name of the one to which it is a tribute.


As a liberal (excuse me for showing my true colors), the novel is in vein with the politics I support, and I find the whole idea that you can be brave without muscles but with brains extremely appealing. Geeks and nerds like Zach and his father are often ostracized in the macho world, but their contribution to the survival of this planet is not only on par with the big muscular boys, but also often saves the world in events similar to the ones described in the novel.

Military unjustified aggression and conservative outlook that muscles and guns surpass everything is outdated, and I do appreciate the message the author puts forward in his novel.

Besides, the novel also painted us as species not in the most attractive way. hey, but is it worth blaming the reflection in the mirror:-)? We are what we are, and books like that can change us for the better.

I also took the "disappointed" boat. Many fun ideas but in the end they failed to merge in a complete work. I agree with Angie, it doesn't seem of the same author of RPO, or at least it seem a early work.
3 stars but it was a though battle with 2 stars.

I think the narrative’s sloppiness shows up in Cline’s failure to think things through. For example, the protagonist says things that wouldn’t be coming out of the mouth of a high school game-nerd (e.g., “I ignored the ominous subtext of what he’d just said,” and “picking out a single escape pod from the detritus was impossible”). Other problems (it’s been a couple weeks since I finished, so forgive me if I get some of this wrong):

Is Whoadie going to blush in a recognizable way?

Why not just eliminate your own, rogue drone (it wouldn’t hurt the pilot) before it leads the nuclear bomb/Glaive Fighter into your keep?

With ansible (instantaneous) communication, why don’t you just do your remote fighting on the enemy’s moon?

Why does it take so much longer for a drone to get from Jupiter to the asteroid belt, than from the asteroid belt to earth?

When the disruptor selectively disrupts your communications, why don’t you just disrupt his (or switch to the unaffected frequencies)?

Flash Beagle wrote: "Parts of it were fun, but it was mostly a chore to read and most of the time I was not eager to go back to reading it.
There were also parts that even in the highly fictionalized world did not make..."

I forgot about the scene when Zach destroys all the equipment. It's like no one cared because he was the son of some famous military guy. I never really became attached to any of the characters. I thought his friends from earth were going to join him in space, but they didn't play a big role. Then the ones we do meet in space die. Then everyone goes off to have sex when they find out the world is going to end. All three couples. I thought that was odd.

After it was announced to the world that the aliens were coming everyone runs to local internet cafes and and gets on their iPads and all help out. I have issues with this. My parents are what I would consider non-gamers and there is no way they would do this. In fact... I really don't see people doing this unless they are gamers. Plus I was thinking about the fact that people were only told one hour in advance. Sometimes I am mowing my lawn, washing my car, blah blah and it takes a whole hour. I might not even turn on the news or check the internet that hour. So it's like how many people were busy that hour and didn't even have a chance to get the message the aliens were coming!

Just joined the group...hello!

First, I should start with the fact that I loved Ready, Player, One. This is not the same experience.

Although I finished the book, I felt like I needed to push myself through. The concept was interesting but didn't pay off well. I felt like the author took a lot of shortcuts in terms of character and story. I never really connected with any character so it was hard to get invested in what happened to them. Plus, frankly, I found the premise of using the world to play video games to fight a world to be a poor man's knockoff of Ender's Game.

My biggest problem with him blowing up the drone hanger was less the fact that he disobeyed orders and more that someone would devise such an idiotic self-defense system that it automatically shuts down in the presence of a friendly unmanned drone? So not destroying an unmanned drone is a higher priority than keeping an enemy ship out of the base? That made no sense.

I also think the comparisons to Ender's Game are strained at best, and honestly do a disservice to Ender's Game. The book is much closer to The Last Starfighter and admittedly so, both within the story and by the author.

All that being said, I found the story enjoyable, but lightweight and easily forgettable. As others have referred to, the characters were not very well developed and I didn't really get attached to any of them.

I don't think there's any doubt I'll pick up his next book, but it's going to have to be much closer in quality to RPO before he gets another free pass.

I agree with the above. While it was an easy and quick read it felt like it was visual and lacked emotional depth. It was like a film adaptation.

When the emotional moments happened they lacked impact. I was never that engaged in the story. It was an OK read and fast moving but as someone said above a little bit forgettable.

It would made a good film.

Yes, like others I found it to be a quick and easy read, but it lacked depth and a strong plot. I originally thought it was fun, with the references to the different sci-fi shows (as I said earlier) but then it began to feel like I couldn't get though a page with out a reference - and since the plot wasn't moving forward - this got annoying pretty quickly.

I also found it to be very predictable and Zack was a major "mary-sue" (or whatever the male equivalent is - if there is one). I agree with what ML Roberts said above, which is just one example of this

Didn't enjoy this one much at all, and despite the high praises of RPO I'm not sure I'd pick it up after this.

Don't condemn RPO based on this one, especially if you began this book liking its breezy fun (which for me rapidly degenerated). RPO is a much better story with a reasonable rationale for the geek-chic nostalgia. You could tell this one was a first effort in coming up with a (not so) plausible reason to indulge in a nerdgasm. Come back to RPO 6 months to a year from now after the disappointment softens and fades.

I have read RPO and while Armada wasn't in the same league, it was funny and entertaining and for that I consider it a worthwhile read. I'm guessing those disappointed in this book were looking for something deeper? The written word is a powerful medium, but I think it's ok for a book to simply be entertaining.

I will say that I was disappointed in some of the character development. Ray was really cool and I wanted more story time with him. Alexis Larkin was a bad ass and I really wanted to see more of her as well.

Julie wrote: "I also found it to be very predictable and Zack was a major "mary-sue" (or whatever the male equivalent is - if there is one)"

Marty Stu

Tiffany wrote: "The written word is a powerful medium, but I think it's ok for a book to simply be entertaining."

I think that's fine, for me this wasn't even entertaining.

I've basically tried to forget the fact I bought the Audible and Kindle version of Armada the day it was released. Luckily for Cline he wrote RPO (which I loved) first and we all bought this book. This was one of my most anticipated books for 2015 and what a let down.

Uhoh, thread necromancy. This is a big step toward the dark side for me. :)

I just finished this. I went into it with really low expectations based on the reviews and comments I’ve seen over the past couple years, and maybe that’s partly why I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

It did have plenty of flaws: clichés, clichés, and more clichés, a slow start (too many references to movies, games, and books hurt the pacing in the first section), a little too much melodrama in general, quite a few plot holes/stretches, etc.

But I also thought it was fast-paced and fun, at least after those initial chapters, and it made me laugh. I think a large part of my enjoyment really comes down to timing. It was a fun change of pace from the denser books I’ve been reading lately.

The follow-up book after the amazing opening of Ready Player One. All things considered that fact hurts this book more than anything else. After the monumental success of Ready Player One, it is easy to see why this book is seen as a letdown.

It is a good book, but not a great one. If the release order had been reversed, there would be fewer comments about being Disappointed with Armada. It is a good book, a tad rough in places and working in the same mold as Ready Player One to keep the Social and Cultural links intact.

My hope is that as a writer Mr. Cline doesn't get disappointed and stop writing. I would like to see what he can do when he comes back with a new work. Either following Armada or breaking out on new terrain.

I just started listening to ready player one. So not sure how I feel about it. It seems promising, We shall see.

This was fun! I give it 4 stars. A little too much video game play-by-play, and the endless movie quotes were tiresome, partly because they are already so played out in real life. But it was a fun ride. I'll read anything Ernest Cline writes in the future.

I liked it but it was just a little too close to Last Starfighter!