Armada is a page turner that is fun at times but overall pretty mediocre. I still enjoyed it for what it was, but I don't think I had the same expectations.
I had high expectations and a really good start didn't tamper them. But I was definitely disappointed in the end. But I don't think it was a complete worthless read. Dialogue was pretty bad and the "twist" wasn't all that interesting. Hopefully Cline's next book, with less hype, will be a good rebound.
Finished the book last night after 4 or 5 sittings. Non spoiler thought...I agree that the book didn't feel "well written" at times but I think that is solely due to the dialogue. To me it sounded like a book where it was written "by adults who want to try and seem cool to their preteen". In other words... That said - I LOVED this book. I was born in 84 so this wasnt my 'sweet spot' reference wise but i understood enough. The premise was just so much fun and the characters themselves, dialogue aside, were easy to invest in. Spoiler I was cool with Aech being a big, black, lesbian. The big and black I thought was a fun twist and the subtle political reasoning was not overdone (pretend to be white to get further in life) and aligned well with the "be what you want to be" purpose of OASIS. And as far as being a lesbian, that was an easy and quick way to get past any potential "I'm in love with you" angle with Wade. Plus it addressed her genuine opinion when the 2 of them would talk about chicks (which the book mentioned) so I'm totally cool with it. Also, it was mentioned in a couple of posts...but the fact that a big, black, lesbian was a hige fan of 80s nerd culture doesnt seem off to me when you consider that everyone had HUGE incentive to become obsessed with 80s nerd culture to get the Egg. Spoiler the one thing that never came and kinda glad it didnt as it opens up other doors...i was 100% expecting Halliday's mind to still be alive in the OASIS and that he was basically immortal through Anorak. Glad it didnt go there now that the book is over but that was something i was expecting for a long time Can't wait for the movie. In the meantime I need to load up my Raspberry Pi emulator with all of this old shit.
Sub-Zero nice write up. Agree with pretty much everything you said. Please spoiler though, we try and spoiler thoughts even after the read through is finished for people who want to come along later (as you just did)
Ah...i read through this whole thread last night after finishing the book and saw it was "open discussion" and stuff stopped being spoiled. I'm new on the Book Club forum so just let me know. Spoiling shit sucks. Spoiler Which I almost did to myself when 3/4 of the way through the book I decided like an idiot to see the movie cast because I was curious. Thankfully they did not cast Aech yet or that would have spoiled it.
Yeah we changed the format after the first few books, and this thread was prior to that. Glad to have you.
Sub-Zero didn't realize a lot of this was still unspoilered. I'm about to go through it and put older posts in spoilers.
Cool. I steered clear until i finished since I figured (years after the book is out) thered be plenty of open comments. But i can see not everyone will.
Welp that is going to be more work than I thought it was. I just added a disclaimer where the unspoilered discussion starts. Thread will remain unspoilered discussion
An amazing book, felt as if it was a Zelda like journey with the riddles, surprised there were no Nintendo references
? I see there's supposed to be a sequel one day called Ready Player Two but don't see where it's ever come out
I meant the anticipated 2nd book written by Cline called Armada. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16278318-armada
Cline announced that he's currently writing a sequel to the book (Ready Player Two) with the help of Spielberg.
so i listened to the audiobook of this in one sitting (very long drive). i really really enjoyed it. one small nit was that it kind of got tiring and increasingly unrealistic that a teenager could master pretty much all of 80s pop culture in what i believe was five years of time. It mentions him watching certain movies dozen of times and listening multiple times to entire discographies of musicians, not to mention comic books, books, video games, etc., while also attending school all day. he knew everything. It just didn't work and you really had to suspend disbelief, which i was willing to do because the story was great. he was just a little too perfect.
Book was better™. Just re-read it earlier this month, so I went in really fresh. Lot of changes. Spoiler Every single key was different. There wasn't a mission with the gates. The way everyone met in the real world. Etc. It was fine. I liked it more than I thought I would, based on the first trailer. Which I thought was trash. So that's good. But I didn't enjoy it anywhere near I did the book.
Ha, that's where I saw it this morning. Decent crowd for a 9:30 am showing. Old could next to me (probably in their 60s) made a reference to all the book changes literally as the lights went back on as credits ran. I laughed.
We have tix for the 7pm showing. It’s like the one book (outside of gone girl) we both liked in the past 2 years
Movie was a B+ but fun. A lot of weird changes, some unnecessary and made it awkward at times. Some of the changes were probably for he best, like making the first key a race vs the book. Thought some of the acting was bad, thought the main bad guy was awful tbqh. Thought the humor was really good, some really subtle stuff made me chuckle, and other scenes like Spoiler The Shining and the Chucky weapon made me lol. Not as bad as I feared based on the trailer. In Spielberg We Trust.
Being discussed here https://www.the-mainboard.com/index...ne-sequel-to-release-in-november-2020.180344/