Books: My Thoughts on Armada by Ernest Cline

By Di - January 29, 2016

Armada by Ernest Cline

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hardback, 349 pages (50%)
Audiobook, 10 CDs (50%)

Read from December 16, 2015 to January 29, 2016

I had heard several not too complimentary reviews of this book prior to reading it. The common thought was that it wasn't as good as the author's previous book. I purposefully didn't want to read Ready Player One before reading this book due to this. I believe this really helped me to realize if I enjoyed the book on it's own merit without being able to compare it to the author's prior work.

I usually like to read books and their audio version in conjunction with each other. I had heard from others what an amazing narrator Wil Wheaton was also, so I really wanted to give the audiobook a listen. In this case, I had been on my library's Overdrive waiting list for months and was still six people away from obtaining my loan by time I finally decided I could not put off reading this book any longer. I literally read 19 pages then put the book down for a while. I just wasn't interested.

Fortunately, I was at my library a while later and they happened to have a copy of the audiobook on CD, so I snatched it up. After listening to a few chapters, it then finally started to pull me in. I ended up devouring the last half of this book in two days. I honestly have to say that if it wasn't for Wil Wheaton's narration, I'm not sure how long it would've taken me to get to the place in the story where it finally started taking off for me.

I understood almost all of the pop culture references and the story really had a nostalgic feel to it, even though it takes place in the present. The family elements gave me the feels at times as well. The story is a bit reminiscent to me of the movie War Games with Matthew Broderick. Even the main character has the same last name in both. There is some instalove, and though it is understandable in the situation that was occurring, the story would've worked just as well if it was an instafriendship instead in my opinion.

I do wish the end was slightly different, but that being said, I still think the story overall was enjoyable and would recommend it especially if you are an Ernest Cline newbie like I was. After my experience with this story, I can only imagine that Ready Player One will be spectacular.

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