Saving the world, one game at a time
Cline’s ‘Armada’ charms with its geeky pop-culture references
A teen gamer battling a horde of aliens for the fate of the world is the kind of geekily over-the-top plot that could happen only in a video game — or in an Ernest Cline novel.
Cline’s debut
Ready Player One
warmed the hearts of computer nerds everywhere, and similarly the new Armada mixes Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, Independence Day and a gnarly round of Space Invaders into a tasty sci-fi stew. But what really pumps heart into the book is the coming-of-age tale at its core, a story of a boy who is curious about the father he never had.
Zack Lightman is a wayward teen trying to forget unfortunate incidents from his past. He lives for playing the action-packed flight simulator Armada and taking down aggressive extraterrestrial spacecraft with his friends and kindred spirits from all over the world. Zack even has a job at a game store, a destination he’d prefer over college.
He also has long had a fascination with the father who died when he was a baby. Xavier Lightman kept a diary of conspiracy theories that led him to think the government and the video game industry were in cahoots. And one day at school, Zack learns it’s all too true as he is recruited into an intergalactic war against the incoming forces of the mysterious Europans.
Cline’s writing has an ingrained appeal to children of the 1980s and pretty much anybody who spends a lot of time with a joystick in his hands. Zack discovering that all those hours spent playing Armada were designed to get him ready to defend Earth is the stuff of gamer dreams. Armada gets heavy-handed at times with the in-game commentary during Zack’s journey toward battle. Only the most ardent arcade lovers will pore over every detail, and it bogs down an otherwise exciting page-turner.
With Ready Player One (director Steven Spielberg is on board for a movie adaptation), it seemed Cline never met a popculture reference he could refuse, to the book’s detriment at times. They come fast and often in Ar
mada, too, but Cline also creates an exciting alternate history for this world, where games, movies and TV shows — and a surprising science celebrity — play a more important part in global events than most people realize.
Zack, too, is a step up for Cline as a main character. He’s blown away by this strange turn in his world — like anyone would be, young or old, so his life is both believable and fantastical. And when all heck is about to break loose, sometimes you’ve gotta call a girl.
This is a clever, relatable read for the Comic-Con crowd. For everybody else, it’s the next step for an improving literary voice and an excuse to check out some Star
Trek DVDs.