ARMADA - gamer geekery in the tradition of Ready Player One

Hi, everyone. Welcome to 2019. It doesn't look very different to 2018 from where I sit – but who knows? I may finish a new book this year.

Before we went off on our Christmas holiday to Norfolk Island I finished reading ARMADA, a novel by the author of READY PLAYER ONE, Ernest Cline. I loved Ready Player One – both the novel and the very, very different movie, (here's my review) so (wincing at the price - AU$12.99) I one-clicked to download.

Here's the blurb – and editorial reviews.

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF READY PLAYER ONE, NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG

'[A] masterful tale of Earth's desperate struggle against a powerful alien foe.' - Andy Weir, bestselling author of The Martian

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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.

At first, Zack thinks he’s going crazy.

A minute later, he’s sure of it. Because the UFO he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

But what Zack’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

Yet even as he and his new comrades scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught, Zack can’t help thinking of all the science-fiction books, TV shows, and movies he grew up reading and watching, and wonder: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little too… familiar?

Armada is at once a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien-invasion tale like nothing you’ve ever read before—one whose every page is infused with author Ernest Cline’s trademark pop-culture savvy.

Here's what everyone's saying about the epic follow-up to READY PLAYER ONE:

‘a modern classic’ – R.M. Rangeley on Amazon, 5 stars

‘A modern masterpiece full of a new style of literary magic’ – Spiros Kagadis on Amazon, 5 stars

‘Excellent. Even better than Ready Player One.’ – David Hay on Amazon, 5 stars

‘One of my favourite books of all time. Incredibly well written’ – Erin Coppin on Amazon, 5 stars

‘Awesome! If you liked Ready Player One, would be very surprised if you don't like this’ – T. Llewellyn-Sanders on Amazon, 5 stars

‘Absolutely awesome!!! Read in less than 24 hours, hooked on every page’ – R. Nicholson on Amazon, 5 stars

‘Amazing and a great follow up read to Ready Player One!’ – Chris on Amazon, 5 stars

‘an incredible story which had me on the edge of my seat the whole time… a joy to read’ – Helen Ratcliffe on Amazon, 5 stars

‘Cline brings you back to all those amazing, unbelievable things you imagined could happen as a kid and makes them real’ – Amazon reviewer, 5 stars

‘Absolutely brilliant! Couldn't put it down, a must read’ – Sam Bean on Amazon, 5 stars

‘a love letter to old school alien invasion sci-fi... Highly, HIGHLY recommended for all fans of Cline’s previous novel, Ready Player One, as well as any classic science fiction fan’ – Izzy on Amazon, 5 stars
‘Ernest Cline is celebrating this culture in a way that’s not just adding another book to the genre, but actually truly celebrating it, the possibilities, wonders and madness of it all’ – Heather on Amazon, 5 stars

‘majorly, fantastically geeky… Armada just ticked all my boxes’ – H. Ross on Amazon, 5 stars

What did I think?

The story is superficially reminiscent of THE LAST STARFIGHTER, a feel-good movie released in 1984, and one of the first to use CGI for its special effects. The premise is similar, with Zack Lightman's high scores in computer games landing him a role in defending Earth from alien invaders, just as Alex Rogan is recruited for an alien defense force in THE LAST STARFIGHTER. But it is a very different plot from there on.

ARMADA is a YA coming of age story and a fantasy rather like STAR WARS, with the basic elements of a quest. Zack's father is dead, killed in a workplace accident when Zack was just a baby. The boy grew up obsessed with the father he'd never known, keeping his diaries and his gamer jacket, longing to find out more about him. But Zack has a friend and father-figure in the man who runs the gaming shop where he works part-time and practices his combat skills. After he's recruited to the defense force, loner Zack discovers he has to work with a group of other gamers who he's never met to defeat the alien attack. There's a love interest, a tough gamer girl who looks nothing like Princess Leia but is every bit as strong. The alien armada is practically invincible, arrayed in overwhelming force. It's hard to imagine how the defences can hold. And of course, there's conflict among the defenders, with different views on the way to proceed.

There's a lot of serious geekery as there was in READY PLAYER ONE, with references to Zack's dead father's obsession with 1980's era computer games. In fact, I found myself skipping across whole paragraphs early in the book because (unlike READY PLAYER ONE) that level of detail about games I'd barely heard of didn't really add to the plot. Nevertheless, I persevered and finished the whole book.

However, I found myself wondering about a lot of key elements, along the lines of 'why would they have done that or why didn't they???'. I don't want to add details because spoilers. Some of the middle parts of the book sagged for me, too. The ending was good and unexpected in several ways. Zack and the rest of the survivors have grown – and grown up. And we readers are left with things to consider.

It's certainly not an enthusiastic five stars from me, but ARMADA was worth the time.

The book or the movie?

Last week I wrote a glowing review for Ready Player One. This week, I've read the book.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever said the book is soooo much better than the movie. Sure, it's understood that a movie is a visual medium (duh), whereas in a book you create your own images, and therefore the story-telling can be inherently different.

An excellent example is Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. He starts with a prologue which shows what was narrated by Gandalf at the council of Elrond. You don't want long narratives in a film. 'Show don't tell' is absolutely the rule. Jackson added a few bits that I could have done without, other bits added explanation that I felt worked, but all in all the adventures of the ring bearers were pretty much the same as Tolkien's novel.

Ready Player One the book is a very different animal to Ready Player One the movie.

The basic premise is the same. James Halliday has left an easter egg in his Oasis gamer universe. The players have to solve a series of riddles and pass tests to win the prize. IOI, a vast conglomerate that owns most of the internet and the hardware that allows players to use Oasis, is cast as the Evil Empire, with Nolan Sorrento at its head. Sorrento will do anything to reach the egg first, using all his massive resources to keep other players out. But Wade Watts, through his avatar, Parzival, outsmarts Nolan - at least at first. Parzival is supported by his friends, Art3mis, Aeich, Shoto, and Daito.

So far so good.

But the challenges the High Five face in the movie are not the same as in the book. A couple of additional villains are added and the relationship between the five heroes proceeds in different ways. It's a very, very different narrative. I could say much more, but spoilers.

I enjoyed the book. A lot. It's written in first person, from Wade's POV. Of necessity, we never get into the heads of Aeich, Art3mis, Daito, and Shoto, or, for that matter, Nolan Sorrento. A lot of the book lovingly explains the tech to gain entrance to the Oasis and I liked that, too. But it's not great viewing.

Spielberg's movie is faster paced, edgier, and a bit more whizz-bang. There are more explosions and lots more real life. I can understand Spielberg adding in scenes from the villain's perspective so we can see what's going on with the opposition. In a way the screen writers have come up with a story that captures the essence of the book. The credits do say 'based on' a book by Ernest Cline - and that's the truth of it.

The nice side of that is you get to see a terrific movie - and then you can get a more intimate view - with a heap of deleted scenes - by reading the book. Oh - and I'd suggest you see the movie FIRST.

Ready Player One - a science fiction quest

I thought when I saw the trailers that I might enjoy Ready Player One - and now I've finally watched the movie. In a tiny nutshell, I thought it was great. I'll be watching it again.

Here's the blurb for the book.

"In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. 

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape."

I wasn't a teenager in the 80's but I was a geek, a nerd, a computer programmer, and a player of video games. My favourite was Space Quest, with its hilarious nods to pop culture like the cantina scene in Star Wars, the Blues Brothers, and the monster in Alien to name just a few. Those types of references are all through Ready Player One and the graphics are, of course, amazing.

Ben Mendelsohn does such a great villain. It took me a while to work out where I'd seen him before (Rogue One) but this time he speaks American. His character, Nolan Sorrento, comes across as a greedy coward, quite willing to confront the enemy – provided he has the advantage.

Mark Rylance is convincing in the role of James Halliday, a socially awkward genius who is happiest in his own world.

Wade and his friends are, I think, prettier in the movie than they were in the book, but it all works for me.

Overall, the story is a lesson in the power of simplicity. It's a quest, a group of adventurers seeking a prize that is also coveted by the bad guys. There's a deep theme running through the narrative which should speak to today's generation, and us older folks watching on, too. The technology for the film's virtual world is only a shade past where we are right now, as fits the time frame. 2045 is only 17 years away, and the first release of Halliday's virtual world, the Oasis, was in 2025. That's just a few short years away. The movie's dystopian real world is only a sleep past a nightmare as a potential future.

In this depressing future people – all sorts of people – escape to the Oasis, where they can be anyone, be anywhere their imagination can take them. Therein lies the problem. Wade's friends in the virtual world are avatars, just like himself. They may be very, very different in real life, as he is himself. It's a lesson worth remembering even in 2018.

There's a strong romance thread in the movie, both between Parzival (Wade) and Art3mis, and in Halliday's life which provides clues to attainment of the prize.

Steven Spielberg is so very good at these feel-good SF movies, going right back to ET. His Indiana Jones movies have that retro feel as well, when the villains were well defined Nazis and the world was a simpler place. They're just the sort of movies I like. Fellow-blogger Donna S. Frelick saw the movie at the theater some time ago. I think she liked it, too. Here's the link to her review.

Did you enjoy Ready Player One?

Whoops - I forgot

Me at 3

Sorry, folks. I'm a bit late in posting. You see, I'm messing about with my website from Wordpress.org back to Wordpress.com and then back to WP.org on a different host, and it was all messy and everything. And... let's face it, I forgot.

News this week - Solo: A Star Wars Movie is on in the theatres. No, I won't be going. I'll wait until I either go overseas or it appears in the shops.  Actually, I've done the same with Black Panther ;). But it does look like it will be a fun, action-packed adventure. A lot of people seem to be enjoying it.

I've started reading Ready Player One after all the good vibes from the movie (which I haven't seen). The world-building is interesting. I've alreay encountered a couple of 'hmm' moments. But it's a great dystopian setting. It's also (IMO) a great example of a very successful book which does not start right into the action. It's all about the setting, grounding the reader in that world. YES! (Punches air with fist). And, of course, I'm old enough to catch quite a few of the '80's references. That was the decade I became a compuer programmer.

What with one thing and another I haven't done much fiction writing - although I have been delving into family history. These days, everybody's got a phone that takes pictues and videos. Family history is everywhere. Even on Facebook it's so easy to see what you did ten years ago. But that's not true for my generation. I've been going through creased black and white - or sepia - photo of my mother and father and my siblings. They're few and far. No videos, of course. And unless somebody does something with them, adds names to faces, gives context, they'll just be a bunch of old photos in a chocolate box. All but one of my siblings are dead, and I have a writing skill. So I'm creating a document to give some idea of what life was like for my immediate family, relying mainly on my memories - which have faded over time. It's been interesting looking back. The process becomes all-consuming. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this incident or that, reliving good times and bad. Good times are a burst of white light and sunshine, the details lost in a happy haze. The bad times are harsh sketches in black and white, details lost in shade and sorrow.

And I shall end with some photos - just because.

READY PLAYER ONE SCORES BIG ON FILM

Do yourself a favor. Run, do not walk, to your nearest multi-plex, plunk down the outrageous amount of money they charge you to see a movie these days, buy some popcorn and settle into your seat for the most fun you’ll have in a theater this year. Go see READY PLAYER ONE, director Stephen Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s SFR tribute to Everything Eighties. You’ll thank me for the recommendation.

I was over-the-moon about the 2011 book that serves as the source material for this movie. For those of you who missed it, I’ll reprint my 2013 Spacefreighters review here, only because it serves to describe the film, too:

It is that rarity among modern SF—a readable page-turner of a book, with a wonderful set of characters, a lovable geek of a hero and even a little romance. Yes, romance!  An arc (barely discernible, but there) and **spoiler alert** an HEA!

The set-up is this:  in the near future the economy is collapsing in on itself, with the predictable energy and global-warming crises reaching critical levels. Those who can (which is anyone with a nickel to spare), escape the gray drudgery of daily life by logging into the Oasis, a virtual universe which is combination Internet/entertainment center/shopping mall/travel service/role-playing enabler/alternate reality. Think Xbox on steroids, with the ability to put you anywhere or –when you want. You go to school in the Oasis (that much is free). You shop in the Oasis. You travel to see the Pyramids in the Oasis (much too dangerous and expensive to try and do that in the real world).  Want to explore space with Captain Kirk (or Banzai Buckeroo or Captain Mal Reynolds)? There’s a world for that. Want to fight orcs with Aragorn? There’s a world for that. You just slip on your visor and gloves (or your full body suit or sit in your chair, depending on what kind of gear you can afford), become your avatar,  and slip away.

Then the man who invented all this, by all accounts an antisocial geek of epic proportions, dies. In his will he states that all of his worldly goods (and control of the Oasis) will be bestowed on the person who finds an Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the vast universe of his Oasis. The race is on, with our hero, a lowly nerd in high school at the beginning of the quest, matching wits with thousands of other experts on this man, as well as the bad guys, sent by a corporation out to gain control of the Oasis.

The fun part is that the inventor was obsessed with the 1980’s—its movies, music, TV shows, technology and, especially, videogames.  He’s filled his Oasis with sly references to all these things, and the quest for the Easter egg depends on knowledge of them.  So the author of Ready Player One can gleefully send his hero through stargates or use warp drive or have him fight robots with names true nerds would recognize (but I, regretfully, didn’t) because it’s part of the Eighties thing. One test for our hero had him reciting the entire script for MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. Hilarious!

Fortunately, of course, our hero shares his hero’s obsessions.  He can actually play those ancient videogames, even the ones we might have played on old Commodore 64 computers and the like.  For those of us who can remember what it was like to type in instructions for role-playing games (which is why I quickly bored of such games and never went back), this book is a hoot.

Of course, some things from the book had to be changed for the film. The action elements were played up, the slower character interactions played down. In the film there were only three keys to the Easter egg; in the book there were, I think, seven. But the romance survived the cut. And seeing the Oasis on the big screen was worth every penny of my entrance fee. The CGI was amazing and just as imaginative as Cline’s agile mind.

Speaking of Cline, who was a newbie author back in 2011, that nerdy fellow must be walking on air right now. To see his quirky vision of the near-future up there on the screen, directed by no less a figure than Stephen Spielberg, must be a dream come true. I’m thrilled for him, and for all of us who can enjoy his success with him.

Cheers, Donna