Review: Armada

Armada by Ernest Cline
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a book that I so desperately wanted to like and have been waiting to read until I could sit down and consume in in one go. Ready Player One had totally blown my mind when I first read it and I was so ready to have it happen again.

I think that anticipation is what leads me to want to give this book a three star rating, but sadly I just can't justify it and had to remain strong at two stars. The premise of Armada is amazing, and as someone who loves to game (please can I go into a Final Fantasy world now??) I was excited to read about someone like me who had to face up to the reality of it happening. And the very start of the book lived up to this, mostly. Zack was interesting and there were so many facets of his character that could be explored, the people around him had real potential to develop and further the plot.

Then it was almost like the story got away from Cline. It started to unravel so quickly it was hard to keep up with it and I felt almost became a parody of itself. I rarely say this, but I feel the book could have benefited from being another 100 pages long. Many of the plot points that were brought up were just left in the dust as the action got underway.

For example, a lot was made of Zack's anger issues and that was the reason he wasn't recruited sooner, but nothing ever came of it. It was never dealt with. Once its stopped being a useful plot device it was discarded and I felt like it could have rounded him out so much better!

This is what happened with the side characters too. They had their brief purpose and just not enough time was devoted to anyone to give them real personalities. After Ready Player One had such an amazing cast of characters, I do feel this was the biggest let down of the book for me. I wanted to fall in love with them and wish them well through this journey, but they were stereotypes at best.

As I said, I like the premise of this book and I think with more space it could have been developed well. I will certainly read whatever Cline brings out next, because this could easily be a blip or second novel issues. His first book let me know that he has amazing talent. Sadly it just didn't shine in this particular novel.

View all my reviews