'Armada' by Ernest Cline

Armada, Ernest Cline (3.0)

While not as thoroughly engaging, complex or as pertinent to those of my generation as Mr. Cline’s previous novel, ‘Ready Player One’, I did find some things to like in ‘Armada’. His predilection for video games and science fiction are strong in the story, though the ‘80’s movie and music tie-ins are subtler. The main character, Zack, spends much of his teenage years playing Armada, a multi-player video game involving a war against an invading alien army where our armed force uses unmanned replaceable drones for the majority of the fighting. When he starts realizing that his video world and real world may be combining (uh, steal much from ‘Ender’s Game’?), he believes he is having a mental breakdown a la his father, who died very early in his life. I won’t say more as this book is really quite predictable enough, but I did find it more compelling as he moved out of the video game sphere and into real life. I am a sucker for most types of Sci-Fi, particularly when the invading alien motivation is somewhat cryptic. I think most readers over 40 will read this book and pine for ‘Ready Player One’, but those younger may be happy, as is.

"All the Light We Cannot See' and 'The Book of Life'

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (3.5)

Reading this book while travelling through Austria was a unique experience. Hearing lots of German being spoken certainly put me in the right frame of mind.  That being said, I have mixed feelings about this book. My main complaint is how one of the main characters, the German boy, Werner, was written to be one of the most sympathetic Nazi characters I have read.  From his introduction, I felt manipulated into liking him and knew I would be called on to ignore or at least understand his war actions.  The story is told mainly from his point of view and that of a 16-year-old blind French girl. The author jumps back and forth from a time shortly after the invasion of Normandy to a time 5-10 years leading up to it. The point of view at various times comes from a couple of other characters (a Nazi gemologist, the girl’s father, her uncle, etc.), which seems a bit disjointed but does work.  I liked the unique qualities of the story, including the plot, but I found the ending a little unsatisfying. The climax happened quite early (~85%) and the story dangled on with many more small events. Overall the plot was compelling, I liked how some of the characters were written, but something was ‘off’.

The Book of Life (All Souls), Deborah Harkness (3.5)

For light, romantic, ‘Twilight’ for adults’ type reading, this series fits the bill. Sprinkled with interesting historical information and characters you want to follow, these books have a bit less ‘mooning’ and more action as the two main characters (a witch and a vampire) fall in love and try to figure out how witches, vampires and daemons came to be and are supposed to flourish. As typical with unconventional lovers, most everyone is against them and many roadblocks thrown in their way.  I found this third book better than the second – it wrapped most elements up well, leaving a bit open for more, but was generally satisfying in its closer.