Armada was a fascinating dive into the question: “What if alien species were testing us and judging our every action?”
I Loved it. I’ve listened to the audiobook twice now and recommend it to any fan of science fiction.
Armada was written by Ernest Cline who also wrote Ready Player One which I’m sure you’ve heard of. I loved Ready Player One and enjoyed this book only slightly less. Both are filled with great characters and excellent story telling and have earned the right to be on my virtual bookshelf for good.
The Good
Armada is written from the perspective of a whiny kid who has daddy issues. This is annoying at first, but the growth Zach shows is evident throughout the book. He is a character you can get behind and enjoy reading about. I love good characters with personality. This can be tough to establish in a one off book with no character development that a series would grant you. It’s quick, but you quickly care about the outcome as it relates to the characters.
The Bad
Some things that happen are quite predictable. I won’t spoil anything for you, but you can quickly start to make accurate guesses on what’s going to happen next. If you are a sci-fi expert, you’ve probably seen or heard it all before. This doesn’t detract too much, but a bigger twist or two would have propelled the book even further up on the likability scale.
The Great
The message shone through that humans who don’t stop to think for a second can get themselves in a huge mess. I loved that the main characters stopped and questioned things and came to the conclusion that things just didn’t make sense. I think this carries over directly into real life as we should always be questioning our situation, motives, and our own understanding.
A book that can get you to think but that also is highly entertaining is bound to be great. Add to it the fact that Will Wheaton reads the audio version and you should have all the reason you need to check it out.
You can pick it up here.
Enjoy!
-Jordan
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