Book reviews by Mobilism's Book Review team
Apr 25th, 2021, 9:56 pm
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Title: Armada
Author: Ernest Cline
Year: 2015
Genre: Fiction > "Sci-fi" > Gaming & Pop Culture
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Mobilism: Read
Amazon: Purchase

Finishing this novel can probably be attributed to some inexplicable and subconscious desire to seek out my inner masochism. There are enough moments in this novel where I honestly feel like it's time to put on a rubber suit and have someone suggestively whisper "bring out the gimp" with all its attendant, unpleasant implications as The Revels' "Comanche" ominously fades in with its savage horn and staccato rhythm.

For context: Ernest Cline’s début, Ready Player One, is relatively enjoyable if insubstantial. Going into it tabula rasa provides a gimmicky but enjoyable cavalcade of 1980’s pop-culture references. While considerable, the references don't feel overwhelming, and their incorporation into the story is unexceptionable. But the hook would have no meaning without the somewhat plausible dystopian scenario presented, or the straightforward and well-paced plot.

This sophomore effort is embarrassingly devoid of all these qualities. It’s the same gimmick a second time around, but executed with far less skill and an overload of enthusiasm in its ramped-up frequency of pop-culture references, all of which makes it unremittingly contrived. Perhaps an exaggeration, but it certainly feels like nearly every other sentence alludes to something or the other, and this non-stop barrage gets so very tiring. The allusions no longer serve the story but are merely there for their own sake, a self-indulgent affectation, e.g. the overlong list of unfamiliar game titles running for pages at one point for no purpose other than to indicate the author's gaming credentials.

Most egregious of all is the ludicrous plot that takes video-gamer wish-fulfilment to farcical heights in a desperate attempt at vindication from mainstream society’s perception of aggregate gamer-geek culture. One conspicuous example is a paper-thin love interest as pop-culture savvy as the protagonist, both of whom quickly descend into trite exchanges of quotes as a proxy for meaningful conversation—the understanding of each reference is a measure of cool, you see. She’s hot as hell with an encyclopaedic store of SF film quotes, and a kick-ass gamer to boot. And when you think it can't get any more banal, there is the instant elevation of gamers to military ranks based on gaming skill when conscripted into a clandestine, world-wide, Hydra-like organisation set up to oppose forces bent on humanity’s destruction. This being an obvious attempt to have the hundreds if not thousands of hours spent on the past-time instantly exonerated by giving it practical utility with actual, real-world stature (older, hardened, experienced military personnel must suddenly salute and obey shit-for-brains, pimple-faced teenagers). There’s even a very telling bit where the character reflects something along the lines of: see, video games weren’t a total waste of time. All of this comes through as an even more overt example of author self-insertion than with his first novel, where the protagonist is Cline’s Mary Sue surrogate in an ultimate quest for wish-fulfilment: he is the gamer-nerd saviour of the world; he is the absent but ultimately vindicated hero-father; and he is also to some extent the super-hot, super-cool single mother. Talk about an exercise in exhibitionist masturbatory fantasy.

Cline also proves himself a one-trick pony with this novel, where the gimmick of pop-culture references from his début, once seen, loses all flavour and originality on second viewing. It doesn’t work even if generously taken as a self-aware farce (which it isn't) with its forced annexation of the current, pop-culture Zeitgeist. Perhaps it could have worked as fluff entertainment, but the badly drawn, bland characters—all of them automated cyphers with obvious roles to play, from the parents and love interest, to the two best friends whose only purpose is to dole out even more tiring nerd-culture references—juvenile dialogue, and a vapid, puerile plot precluded that possibility. It's a dull mystery with an insipid pay-off and a hackneyed attempt at some obligatory, virtue-signalling point concerning our species' propensity to violence that's as insubstantial as the rest of the novel that precedes it. It fails in its attempt at adolescent wish-fulfilment precisely because of its over-the-top nature, and it's boringly derivative as a cash-grab endeavour following the positive reception of his previous novel based off the surge in "geek culture" over the last decade.

Don't waste your time with this book. I read it by rote, merely to finish, a chore analogous to cleaning out the funky gunk and deposits in a shower drain at a Depression-era retirement home. All it does is confirm Cline's début to be a fortuitous accident that rode the culture wave to success. Instead, read Ender's Game (1985, revised 1991) by Orson Scott Card, and watch The Last Starfighter (1984) directed by Nick Castle (it's the "sci-fi" film whose plot is more-or-less ripped off by Cline for this story). The only positive to this book is the cover’s retro design. The rest of it would serve better as kindling in a barbaric, post-apocalyptic world inhabited by anthropophagous boys and their erudite, canine companions.
Apr 25th, 2021, 9:56 pm
Apr 29th, 2021, 9:50 pm
While I understand your points and respect your right to this opinion, I just want to tell anyone who reads this that I loved this book. If you go into this looking for a deep and complicated fantasy novel, I agree that you won`t find that here. On the other hand, if you want a light enjoyable read, this book is great. The story is creative and it has a nice flow. I would say it`s the perfect poolside book for any sci-fi fan.
Apr 29th, 2021, 9:50 pm
May 4th, 2021, 4:25 pm
tardisriversong wrote:I would say it`s the perfect poolside book for any sci-fi fan.


I've read all his books, and agree. Nerd beach reads. If you go into them thinking he's weaving something akin to the Simmilarillion you'll be disappointed, but if you crack it open with an umbrella drink nearby? Good times!
May 4th, 2021, 4:25 pm
May 11th, 2021, 8:54 pm
If anything, the reviewer is selling short the awfulness of the book. I enjoyed Ready Player One, but this one felt like a vapid by the numbers cash-in.
May 11th, 2021, 8:54 pm
May 11th, 2021, 11:54 pm
Someone told me Ernest Cline's books are just 50 Shades but for nerds/geeks and I couldn't agree more. It's just in-your-face fanservice.
May 11th, 2021, 11:54 pm
May 12th, 2021, 9:14 pm
I read this, and will never do so again. The plot didn't seem to make much sense, and the pop culture references were forced. I'm glad I read the library's copy instead of buying it.
May 12th, 2021, 9:14 pm
Jun 9th, 2021, 2:55 pm
I feel like it was entertaining enough for a single listen, but I think the story lags at a certain point the same way RPO does.

The story is decent enough right until the point where the MC gets scooped up by the military. After that things kind of crawl along until the climax unfolds into a series of rushed events in a desperate attempt to end the story.

Both Armada and RPO suffer from a lack of interesting or distinct characters. Rather than fleshing out the cast of these books, Cline opts for a cast of diverse one dimensional stand ins. The protagonist of both these books might as well have been the same person and the love interests of both contribute marginally to the plots.

But honestly the real problem with Armada is that it seems to have been written without an audience in mind. In this book you will find adult themes, drug use and sex, but with a plot that would fail to satisfy a reader beyond a fourth grade reading level.

For me it was worth a listen and I would recommend it to those who enjoyed RPO, but by no means is it a great book.
Jun 9th, 2021, 2:55 pm
Jun 29th, 2021, 1:25 am
I mean, if we're going to trace theft you have to go back to George Lucas stealing the references from this book, from Akira Kurosawa.
I'm still going to consume this for the nostalgia but I'm not sure if I should read the books or watch the movies...
Definitely not doing both anymore.
Jun 29th, 2021, 1:25 am

Please do not comment, pm me with the mobilism link if you want a re-upload.
Jul 6th, 2021, 3:07 pm
This was basically my experience with the book as well. The stupid pop culture references, a weird self-insert main character. Overall just a boring book. Not worth your time.

For a similar genre book that does the "video games but it's actually fighting aliens" or whatever, there's always Enders Game and Roar by Emma Clayton
Jul 6th, 2021, 3:07 pm
Jul 7th, 2021, 9:23 pm
Fivetide wrote:While considerable, the references don't feel overwhelming,.


Hard disagree there. I tried listening to the audiobook during a commute, and I shut it off in frustration after a few minutes. Maybe the never-ending litany of pop culture references read differently than they sound when read aloud, but it was incredibly ponderous to sit through. So if you're telling me that this novel is even WORSE than Ready Player One in that regard... yeah, I won't be reading it. Not that I was going to anyway.

On a similar, but much funnier note, I listened to the audiobook for "Sphere" by Michael Crichton, as I'd read the book many years ago as a kid and remember being entertained by it. At a couple of points in the book, an alien intelligence is communicating with our protagonists via binary code displayed on a computer monitor. In the book, that is represented with a visual recreation of the monitor screen on the page, with all the 0's and 1's. In the audiobook, for some reason, instead of just condensing it down by saying that the screen was full of 1's and 0's, or something equally practical but more descriptive, they chose to read each and every digit out loud. We're talking several minutes of of the poor narrator having to read 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0... Do you think they made him repeat it if he said the wrong number? There has to be a story behind why they did that. No reasonable person associated with producing that audiobook could have thought that was the best way to go about it.
Jul 7th, 2021, 9:23 pm
Jul 15th, 2021, 7:04 am
I enjoyed "Ender's Game" back when it was a short story. Card expanded it into a novella, which was ok, and then into a novel, which just got annoying. Only a couple of years ago, reading an online discussion about the novel, I learned that he had expanded it yet again, adding a brother and sister to Ender, and turning it into a giant shitshow. Then it became an enormous series of shitshows, endlessly dull.

The original short story is in one of the "There Will Be War" anthologies edited by Jerry Pournelle. These have been reprinted and issued in electronic form in the last few years by Castalia House, so you can find the actually good short story quite easily. There are some other good stories in those anthologies, along with a lot of bleh stuff.

Circling back around to video game playing, one of the best stories in these anthologies was "A Death in Realtime". For that story alone, go find the "There Will Be War" ebooks and search through to find and read it.
Jul 15th, 2021, 7:04 am
Oct 25th, 2021, 3:19 am
Can only agree with the original poster. Ready Player One was pretty fun when I first read it. Th endless pulp culture references made sense in the context of the story. It wasn't hugely meaningful, or featuring masterful characterisation, but still an entertaining 'nerd-fest'.

Armada wasn't just bad in itself, it even ruined my enjoyment of Ready Player One. Like the Matrix sequels, it sapped my enjoyment of the previous book. The nerd culture references, transplanted from a context where they made any sense, were awful - and in rereading RPO, they now seem less like clever in jokes between the nerd author and nerd reader, and more like the author is a gigantic tit, who can't stop endlessly quoting other peoples' coolness in lieu of any coolness of his own.
Oct 25th, 2021, 3:19 am
Dec 17th, 2021, 10:50 am
Fivetide wrote:Don't waste your time with this book. I read it by rote, merely to finish, a chore analogous to cleaning out the funky gunk and deposits in a shower drain at a Depression-era retirement home.


Thank you for taking the time to read and review this book. I could never have done such a comprehensive job if I disliked a book that much. Mainly because I would have stopped reading it and picked up something else. So many books, so little time. :)

I enjoyed Ready Player One well enough and Armada was okay imho but quite derivative and did feel like it had been manufactured mainly to capitalise on RPO's success. Even authors have to make a living and it's only selling out if you're not getting a share. :lol:

[FULL DISCLOSURE] I spent a lot of money and time playing galaxians, space invaders, asteroids and missile command on arcade machines when the games came out.

In closing, I have (started to) read many worse books and if you like the genre it's not the worst way to pass a few hours.
Dec 17th, 2021, 10:50 am
Jan 25th, 2022, 5:52 am
Absolutely agree with the review. I liked (didn't love) Ready Player One. But this one was just terrible. I only read about 12% on my Kindle and that was 12% too much. This book breaks the number one rule of any form of entertainment (books, movies, etc.): Thou Shalt Not Be Boring.
Jan 25th, 2022, 5:52 am