• Author: Ernest Cline
• ISBN: 9780804137256
• Genre: Science Fiction

The above ISBN is for the hardcover edition, but I listened to the audiobook I purchased.

Armada is an excellent second book by Ernest Cline, the author of Ready Player One.  I enjoyed it from start to finish and was a little surprised at how quickly I got through the book.  With Ready Player One, I felt that it took a while to get into the story due to the somewhat lengthy exposition at the beginning.  However, that wasn’t the case with Armada.  Instead, the backstory was given in little snippets when it was needed, so the pace of the story felt considerably faster.  There was also a lot of action, and the story takes place over a very short amount of time.  I can easily see the book being adapted to film.

As much as I loved it, though, I should have waited a bit longer to read it.  I finished Ready Player One not too long ago, and the main characters in the two books seem to be a lot alike.  Maybe they’re more different than I think.  Maybe the characters seem too similar because Wil Wheaton narrated both of the audiobooks.  Or maybe it’s because Ernest Cline is doing what every author should do and simply writing what he knows.  Either way, I picked up Armada too soon after Ready Player One.  That only goes for the characters, though.  While both books center around gaming, they are completely different stories.

If you loved Ready Player One, or for that matter, if you’ve read and loved Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card or other books along that vein of Science Fiction, you’ll love Armada.  This book is also an excellent choice if you’re a gamer.  I don’t know if Ernest Cline has a sequel in mind, but if he does, I will definitely read it, along with any other books he writes in the future.