من تصميم Ernest Cline
Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. And too often, he catches himself wishing that some fantastic, impossible, world-altering event could arrive to whisk him off on a grand spacefaring adventure.
So when he sees the flying saucer, he's sure his years of escapism have finally tipped over into madness.
Especially because the alien ship he's staring at is straight out of his favorite videogame, a flight simulator callled Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting Earth from alien invaders.
As impossible as it seems, what Zack's seeing is all too real. And it's just the first in a blur of revlations that will force him to question everything he thought he knew about Earth's history, its future, even his own life—and to play the hero for real, with humanity's life in the balance.
But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can't help thinking: Doesn't something about this scenario feel a little bit like...well...fiction?
At once reinventing and paying homage to science-fiction classics as only Ernest Cline can, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a coming-of-age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you've ever read before.
Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. And too often, he catches himself wishing that some fantastic, impossible, world-altering event could arrive to whisk him off on a grand spacefaring adventure.
So when he sees the flying saucer, he's sure his years of escapism have finally tipped over into madness.
Especially because the alien ship he's staring at is straight out of his favorite videogame, a flight simulator callled Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting Earth from alien invaders.
As impossible as it seems, what Zack's seeing is all too real. And it's just the first in a blur of revlations that will force him to question everything he thought he knew about Earth's history, its future, even his own life—and to play the hero for real, with humanity's life in the balance.
But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can't help thinking: Doesn't something about this scenario feel a little bit like...well...fiction?
At once reinventing and paying homage to science-fiction classics as only Ernest Cline can, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a coming-of-age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you've ever read before.
المراجعات-
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June 22, 2015
What if the X-Files were a “fictional alien cover-up created to conceal real one”? Cline (Ready Player One) makes this kind of paranoia intriguing in an SF novel whose strong opening compensates for a less gripping ending. After Zack Lightman’s father died in an accident, the teen distracted himself with gaming, achieving one of the world’s top scores in a human vs. alien invaders game called Armada. To Zack’s astonishment, one morning he looks out of his classroom window in Beaverton, Wash., and sees a Sobrukai Glaive, one of the enemy ships from that game. Skeptical of his own senses, Zack flees school to take a more careful look at his father’s writings, only to find an unsettling level of conspiracy thinking. Zack soon finds the connection between his vision and his father’s theories, at which point the story becomes more conventional and less imaginative. The plot holes get harder to ignore as the conclusion approaches, but the book’s beginning offers glimpses of Cline’s significant potential. -
November 1, 2015
High schooler Zack Lightman is staring out of the window during class one day and sees what appears to be a Glaive fighter, an alien ship from his favorite video game, Armada. Zack isn't imagining things. The aliens are real, they are on the attack, and it's up to the gamers of the world to save humanity. While some plot elements are unsurprising, Cline has created a fast-paced story with so much excitement and drama that readers will be happy to go along for the ride. Readers learn that some popular conspiracy theories are true: video games really have been used to train people to defend the Earth against aliens, with the leaderboards used to find the best fighters; science fiction movies and television shows have been funded by the government with the intention of getting the general population used to the idea that aliens do exist; and the world's most famous scientists, including Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan, have all had a hand in it. This compelling story is made even richer through different perspectives brought by the diverse group of elite gamers tasked with leading the fight. Fans of the author's Ready Player One (Crown, 2011) will not be disappointed. VERDICT Although this is a great book for teen gamers, Cline's sophomore effort with young protagonists and questions about alien civilizations and government secrets will also appeal to fans of science fiction and conspiracy theories.-Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA
Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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June 15, 2015
From the author of Ready Player One (2011), another book centered around video games and the 1980s. Teenager Zack Lightman loves playing games online with his friends, although any similarities to teenagers of today end there. He's obsessed with '80s science fiction, ostensibly because it's a way to fill the void left by his dead father. In the attic, Zack finds not only his dad's favorite movies on VHS, but also a detailed conspiracy theory his father wrote when he was 19, claiming video games and movies about alien invasions have been secretly funded by a shadowy organization to prepare humanity for the real thing. It's a crazy theory that, of course, turns out to be absolutely true. When aliens invade, Zack is whisked away to a secret training facility where he learns the game he's devoted years of his life to playing has always been an advanced tactical simulation, much like the plot to the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter. Now, Zack and his fellow gamers must step up and defend Earth for real. In the hands of a more skilled writer, the book could have drawn on familiar stories to launch into a new science-fiction adventure. Instead, it offers little more than interminable video game-style battles and timeworn tropes, including a plot twist that can be seen coming for miles. Zack's love interest is impossibly attractive, swigs booze from an R2-D2 flask, and laughs at all his jokes-a nerd-fantasy centerfold and just as one-dimensional. Meanwhile, Zack's two friends are indistinguishable from one another and do little more than argue over geek minutiae, because as everyone knows, that's all nerds ever do. However, in the end, it's the unrelenting references to '80s movies that squander any possible tension in the narrative. Readers never doubt whether the good guys will win because they're constantly reminded: good guys always win in the movies. A hackneyed sci-fi spectacle.COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from July 1, 2015
Cline's first novel, the irresistible gamer quest, Ready Player One (2011), became a big best-seller now slated for a movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg. In his second geek-coming-of-age tale, Cline presents Zack Lightman, a teen with anger issues obsessed with his late father, who left behind some rocking mixed tapes and notebooks delineating a wild conspiracy theory about the truth embedded in popular science fiction novels, movies, and videogames. When Zack looks out a school window and sees an alien spacecraft just like those he shoots down so decisively while playing the online alien-invaders videogame, Armada (he's ranked sixth best player in the world), he fears he's losing his mind. Readers, however, will feel confident that they're in for another hard-charging adventure that blasts open the barrier between the actual and the virtual. And indeed, Cline once again brings crackling humor and fanboy knowledge to a zesty, crowd-pleasing, countdown-clock, save-the-planet tale featuring an unlikely hero, adrenaline-pumping action, gawky romance, and touching family moments. If the interactions among characters tend to be as predictable as fast food, Cline's sly, mind-twisting premise and energetically depicted and electrifying high-tech battles make for smart, frenetic, and satisfying entertainment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.) -
August 31, 2015
When Zack Lightman sees aliens in the sky, he thinks he is going crazy like his conspiracy-theory-prone father, who died in a mysterious accident when Zack was a kid. Growing up, Zack distracted himself with gaming, achieving one of the world’s top scores in a humans vs. aliens video game called Armada. Now 18, he finds himself on the frontline of Earth’s defense against an overwhelming alien invasion as a result of his gaming ability. Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame reads the audio edition. He easily expresses Lightman’s point of view with his own naturally young-sounding voice and does especially well with the more emotional parts of the novel, when Zack crumbles into tears. The overall delivery is steady and straightforward, keeping listeners engaged throughout. Wheaton’s one shortcoming is that some of his voices for other characters feel a bit caricatured rather than fully developed. A Crown hardcover. -
May 15, 2015
High schooler and gamer Zack's world is rocked when the aliens from his favorite video game actually invade Earth. Wondering at the eerie similarity of this attack to the books and movies he loved as a kid, Zack, along with other game aficionados, gears up to defend the planet. VERDICT Expect huge demand for this coming-of-age gamer kid adventure after the author's big splash with Ready Player One, but with pop culture references, action, and a relatable main character the appeal for all ages was already there.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from June 15, 2015
Living in the shadow of the father he never knew, Zachary Lightman is devoted to all things sf, especially video games such as Armada, in which he can pilot drones and fight an alien enemy attacking Earth. One afternoon as he sits in class during the final days of his senior year of high school, Zach sees a flying saucer outside the window. And not just any flying saucer: a Glaive Fighter, just like the enemy ships from the game. Zach fears that he's going crazy, but he soon discovers that the skills he has been honing on video games might be the key to saving the world. VERDICT With another winning teen protagonist in Zach, Cline mines the nostalgia and geek spheres just as successfully as he did in his acclaimed debut, Ready Player One. The works that obviously influenced the story line, such as Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the films The Last Starfighter and Star Wars, feel like homages rather than borrowings--a rap artist sampling the best beats out there to create an irresistible jam. [See Prepub Alert, 3/9/15.]--MM
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Old Man's War "Armada proves Ernie Cline is the modern master of wish fulfillment literature--and of reminding us to be careful what we wish for."
