Armada
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Description
It's just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. He's daydreaming through another boring math class, with just one more month to go until graduation and freedom - if he can make it that long without getting suspended again. Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer.
Reviewed on 21st August 2015
Armada - the latest computer game that obsessed the youth of the nation, particularly teenager Zack Lightman - the sixth highest ranked player in the global leaderboards. Until he sees one of the game's alien spacecraft for real from his classroom window, and a web of global conspiracies starts to unfold.
There are a lot of elements here that remind me of Terry Pratchett's 'Only You Can Save Mankind' (though it's a long time since I read it and I dot recall the details), and for a while that resemblance made me slightly dubious of this novel, but once thugs got moving and I got into the story I was hooked.
Cline's mastery of popular culture goes a long way to selling the story, tying in major science fiction films, classic (80s) music and computer gaming since it was invented to produce a story of surprising magnitude.
There are area though where the plot feels a little unpolished - some of the plot twists are clear from a mile off, and there isn't quite the emotional depth that I expected in a teenager from some of the scenarios presented. I had trouble following the passage of time correctly in places, and some of the more action-driven scenes were hard for me to follow (though I think this may be because I don't generally visualise what I'm reading).
A good fun read though and I'm very tempted to explore the author's previous novel and keep an eye out for more in future. There's definitely opening here for a sequel which I think could be fascinating and go into some really deep questions.
