Tag: Crown Publishing

Book Review | Armada by Ernest Cline

Posted on by Adventures in Polishland

Armada by Ernest Cline

Published by Crown Publishing on July 14, 2015

Genres: Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction

Format: Hard Cover

Pages: 349

Source: Blogging for Books

Goodreads: ★★★ 1/2

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship 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.

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’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.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

At once gleefully embracing and brilliantly subverting science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could, Armada is 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 the pop-culture savvy that has helped make Ready Player One a phenomenon.

BOOK REVIEW

I excitedly received a copy of Armada by Ernest Cline for review from the website Blogging for Books. I requested it after hearing so many amazing things about his famous work Ready Player One, and dove in without knowing anything about it whatsoever. Armada follows teenager Zack Lightman and begins when Zack sees a UFO outside his high school’s window while in math class one day. Seeing a UFO would be disturbing in and of itself, but this particular ship is from the video game he plays called Armada. Zack passes it off as a hallucination, and goes about his video-game filled life.

I was immediately drawn into Armada because of Cline’s relaxed writing style. Zack narrates the story in first-person, and his voice is easy to follow. I absolutely loved the beginning of this book. While I’m not into video games, I was really intrigued with the entire world of the gamer. I liked learning more about Armada and Terra Firma, the two games featured in the story, and it was cool to follow Zack and his friends while they played the games, too.

What truly drew me in, however, was the conspiracy theory! Zack’s father died when Zack was just a baby, and he left behind a lot of his possessions. One of those is a notebook in which he wonders if video games are created by the government in order to train an army without anyone knowing. I was hooked! I wanted this theory to be proven true, and had to keep reading to find out whether it would be.

Unfortunately, the story tapers off in the middle, and about one-third of the way through Armada I got very bored. I had to struggle to continue on despite really liking Zack and the other characters in the novel. However, I’m really glad I stuck through to the end, because the finale is excellent. I love the somewhat unsettling and open-ended conclusion. I also loved the discussion on humanity that Cline brings up to the readers.

Overall, I found Armada to be a fun read, and one that was unique to me as someone who doesn’t know a lot about video game culture. I did find the middle section of the book to drag a lot, and I didn’t like that Cline included too many layers of truths and falsities. In fact, to truly understand the intricately woven web of truths and lies, I would have to graph out the novel. Finally, Armada contains multiple typographical errors and other copyediting mistakes.

I recommend Armada if you are looking for a book centered on video games, aliens, or 1980s pop culture. If you are a big fan of Ready Player One, perhaps go into this book with low expectations. I look forward to reading Ready Player One for the first time, because I know it is so praised and can only top Armada.

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Book Review | The Martian by Andy Weir

Posted on by Adventures in Polishland

The Martian by Andy Weir

Published by Crown Publishing on February 11, 2014

Genres: Adult, Science Fiction, Survival

Pages: 369

Format: Paperback

Source: Giveaway

Goodreads: ★★★★


Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

REVIEW

I was beyond excited when a won a giveaway for a copy of The Martian by Andy Weir. This science fiction novel has quickly been gaining recognition and gathering hype in the book community. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will soon. A movie starring Matt Damon is set to be released in November of this year. I knew I had to read this as soon as possible to avoid spoilers, and to be prepared for the film adaptation’s release.

First of all, how awesome is the premise of this book? Astronaut Mark Watney is stranded on Mars. Everyone thinks he’s dead, he has no contact with Earth, and he has to figure out if there is any way possible to survive on the red planet. I was instantly sucked into this survival story, and truly amazed at Watney’s ability to stay calm under dire circumstances. Plus, the guy is extremely hilarious and a lovable character. I was rooting for him from page one. Suffice it to say The Martian is an inventive and captivating story.

The writing style, however, was a bit too inventive for me. Much of the book is written by Watney in log entries detailing his days and his plans. The book starts out this way, and suddenly after fifty pages, the reader is provided with a third person narrative overlooking NASA and how they discover Watney is still alive. This jump was a bit surprising, but quite manageable. Then, things get even more unique – there are random passages that don’t fit with either point-of-view. They are thrown in sporadically, and as a reader it was jarring to the cadence of the book. At times, I had to reread passages to even understand their purpose. While I can see how this experimental writing could work for some readers, I was not a fan of the passages that didn’t fit within the book’s writing pattern.

In the same way, the pacing of The Martian was a bit off for me as well. At first, readers follow Watney at a steady pace. Then, all of a sudden, the story has skipped forward 150 Sols (Martian days). It was almost as if a huge chunk of the story was edited out so the publisher could shorten the book. The author does explain this time jump through Watney’s log entries, but it took a bit of credibility away from the story for me – are we supposed to believe that Watney just doesn’t log anything for half a year when he wrote regularly before?

My last critique is difficult for me to even believe – I got bored. Yeah, Watney was stranded on Mars figuring out how to live and I got bored! Somewhere around the 250 page mark I was wishing the story would pick up again. I’m not sure how this happened, but for some reason the action died down in the middle. Luckily, the ending started picking up, and I raced through the last hundred pages.

Putting those gripes aside, The Martian really is a remarkable novel. It sparks a great discussion on how far humans will go to remain alive even when things look hopeless, and how the cost of one human life is truly priceless. I loved the sappy moments throughout the story to show Watney’s emotional struggle that he often tries to hide in his log entries. I also thought the ending was perfect, but you’ll have to read it to see if you agree.

In the end, I do highly recommend The Martian. Don’t be afraid to pick this up if you’re not a science fiction fan. I know absolutely nothing about science and found the story easy to follow even with all the technical jargon involved. In fact, I felt as if I was learning a lot while reading an entertaining book – that’s a win-win right there. I look forward to more work by Weir in the future (another Watney novel would be great!).

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