This is no 'Ready Player One'

If you could sum up Armada in three words, what would they be?

Armada? Sadly underwhelming.

Would you recommend Armada to your friends? Why or why not?

Hmm, probably not. Like...its fine? And I recommended Ready Player One left, right and center...but this? No. Probably not.

What about Wil Wheaton’s performance did you like?

Everything. Wil is my favorite reader - he has the perfect reading voice.

Any additional comments?

Armada never quite achieves what it sets out to and instead of paying homage to sci fi classics (such as Ender's Game, as noted elsewhere) it borrows far too much from them. Additionally I never found myself investing in these characters in the same way I did with Ready Player One. It was fine. You might like it. You might not.

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33 people found this helpful

Garbage

As a HUGE fan of Ready Player One I was so excited for this one, OMG it was such a let down.

The story is appalling, not only is it a blatant rehash of Enders game/Last Star Fighter but it has the audacity to frequently reference both and constantly draw parallels. It is not new, unique or exciting in any way. All the "Easter eggs" that made RPO so cool just feel lazy and forced in Armada.

Ok, this book is fun and fast paced but It felt like the book was rushed and absolutely no thought was put into it (a borrowed story line, one dimentional characters and a run time of less than 12hours) Honestly, if it wasn't for Will Weaton i probably wouldn't have even finished this. So disappointed!

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27 people found this helpful

Another great book by Ernest Cline

A great second book, like Ready Player One, full of pop culture references. Moves along at a good pace and does not let up!!!

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23 people found this helpful

Enjoyable, geeky, a little bit silly but good fun!

Armada is of course a great fun story. Is it hardcore, without plot holes, as good as Ready Player One? Nope. But is it an easy read (err..listen), have tonnes of great geeky references, an enjoyable story and comes with a rocking playlist then yes it is. I think if you go into this book with these expectations you will have a good time. The characters are fine, but would have liked to see more of Lex in the story as I really wanted to hear more about her. As for the story it's fine, albeit predictable with many leaps of faith required in terms of the technology but this is kind of the point of the story. I think there were just 2 or 3 references I missed so I guess I must be the target audience for the book :) Wesley (sorry Wil, but you'll always be Wesley to me) did a fine job as always with the narration with enough voice acting for it to really help the story but not enough to spoil as can happen. His voicing of one of the characters near the end was amusing though but I think he had a good time with it. Good fun read - recommended if you are after something a little lighter.

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16 people found this helpful

Millenium Falcon Has Problems With Hyperdrive

Unlike many readers and listeners, I wasn’t exactly won over by ”Ready Player One”, and I admit that only a third into ”Armada” I was ready to give up. The premise was too thin for my liking, and while I could appreciate fantastical things taking place out of the blue, unlikely turns and even, as it happens, the likeliest and most obvious ”twists”, I felt completely detached from what was going on to the point where I asked myself why I should bother reading further.

I did, however, until the very end, but I’m not quite sure if it did me any good. As has been pointed out, Cline’s referential style revolves around him writing his versions of his favourite stories, amply referencing them and toying with them along the way, but his hybrid just doesn’t seem worth the trouble to me. Perhaps I’ve never been into the whole fan fiction thing to appreciate what’s going on, but then again, this isn’t really supposed to be fan fiction as far as I’m concerned.

Yet then again, this is a light read, and to some extent fulfills its function. In some way I think the strength in Cline’s writing is that he trusts the reader to know what’s coming next so that he can offer his variation on it. And to be honest, isn’t this what storytelling has been about since forever? Not that there weren’t awkward moments, or that the deus ex machina he used so much in ”Ready Player One” didn’t pop up conveniently here as well. It’s just that when it read well, it read incredibly well. I suppose that’s part of the irritation, really: I’m boarding Millenium Falcon and just as we’re about to hit hyperspace, it doesn’t work, fiddlesticks! See, I was trying to be the geeky me.

As for narration, I wasn’t too fond of Wheaton before, but he’s really growing on me. There are moments where he’s the one making it all click with his enthusiasm and obvious freewheeling fun he’s exuding. Definitely carries the narrative.

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15 people found this helpful

Skip, listen to Ready Player One instead

Full of vomit inducing sob sob amateur dramatics. A cheesy cheap soap opera designed to take advantage, constantly shouting and screaming popular sci and gaming references.
A turd that not even Will Wheaton's superb performance can polish.

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11 people found this helpful

Another Hit!

This is another fantastic book by Ernest Cline! If you loved Ready Player One, you'll most definitely enjoy this. A good combination of pop culture with science fiction. Any lover of video games especially games like Space Invaders will have a great time reading this.
Keep up the amazing work!
P.S Will Wheaton does great Impressions, especially 'British'.

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10 people found this helpful

Bluergh

After the absolutely wonderful READY PLAYER ONE I was looking forward to getting stuck in to another book by the same author and read by the same narrator.
Unfortunately in my opinion this story does not have a patch on the last book.
It's incredibly schmaltzy, Cline must not have got all the film references (that worked so well in RP1) out of his system so half heartedly carries them on throughout this one. I just kept groaning because it felt like he'd plagiarised himself.
Will Wheaton does a fairly good job up until he attempts what is described in the book as "a thick British accent" he's clearly done it with none or at best very little research or practice, and as a British person it grates terribly. We have many very thick accents in Britain, none of which sound like the love child of a South African and an Australian.
Very disappointed.

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6 people found this helpful

A great listen, with interesting current topics

Great narrating by Wheaton. The story is a little out there towards the end in what previously follows a interesting current topic of vr and battle simulators. As always a great book by a great author!

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5 people found this helpful

as amazing as ready player one, wish it didn't end

Audible said I had to put twenty words so I'm writing this to fill up them twenty. in one word though this book is superb

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5 people found this helpful