First Impression Friday | Armada by Ernest Cline

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

Let’s talk about Armada by Ernest Cline.

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

We keep things one-hundred here, and I’m a little worried. Ready Player One is probably my favourite book of all time, what could possibly live up to it? Nothing, right? That’s why I don’t hold books up to it. Except for when I’m reading the only other book by that very author.

Maybe I wouldn’t be so concerned about my bias sneaking in if it wasn’t for the already constant pop culture referencing happening in the opening chapters. You could literally call this kid Wade and nothing would change. However, there’s lots of time for that to change.

“But, Joe,” you say. “Wouldn’t you love to read another RPO?” And I don’t quite know how to answer that. I suppose I do, but like any good sequel, there needs to be a mix of old and new. Right now it’s feeling like a lot of old, and it’s not even a sequel!

My Prediction: I can’t talk about this right now!

Fun fact about this post: The front cover on this one is beginning to……. open itself?

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