Then a ship from the game mysteriously appears while he's in school. Protagonist Zack Lightman (even his name sounds like something from a 1980s video game-themed TV series) is an immense fan of an online alien-fighting aerospace game called Armada, where he's ranked among the top 10 players worldwide. And while they may give Cline's readership the same "I know that reference!" nostalgia buzz this time, they do too much of the heavy lifting, filling in where plot and character should go. ("The Geek Wants Out," a rant from his hilarious free-download album Ultraman Is Airwolf, is a revealing highlight.) It especially pervades his 2011 best-selling debut novel, Ready Player One, in which the future of 2044 is stuck in the past: Thanks to a treasure hunt programmed by a 1980s-loving rich eccentric, Cline's favorite decades-old TV shows, movies, comics and so forth have become a worldwide preoccupation.Ĭline doesn't build such an elaborate gimmick into his second novel, Armada, but the wall-to-wall pop-culture hat-tips are there anyway. Nerd culture pervades everything he does, from his screenplay for the movie Fanboys to his spoken-word routines. How?Īt least no one can complain Ernest Cline wears his influences too lightly. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Armada Author Ernest Cline
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