Zusatztext Nerd-gasmic . . . another science fiction tale with a Comic-Con's worth of pop-culture shout-outs. Rolling Stone An amazing novel [that] proves Cline has the ability to blend popular culture with exciting stories that appeal to everyone. Associated Press A fantastic second novel . . . fans of Ready Player One , it is time to rejoice. HuffPost A joyous, rollicking read . . . will garner Cline an even larger group of fans than the formidable crew he's already assembled. Boing Boing A great romp . . . Cline (ever the fanboy) is both reverent of and referential to the books and movies and games of his childhood. Mother Jones Video games come to life in this witty, extraterrestrial thriller. New York Post Built like a summer blockbuster . . . Cline recombines the DNA of Ender's Game , Star Wars , The Last Starfighter , and old-school arcade games like Asteroids into something that's both familiar and unpredictable. It's a mutant homage to sci-fi tropes past. Gawker Hugely entertaininga paean to the videogames of a bygone era, and like Ready Player One it is a tremendous amount of fun for anyone who remembers that time and played those games. George R.R. Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Game of Thrones A novel so fun, you'll want to reboot it and read it again . . . the best novel this gamer geek has read in a long, long time. Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool Those conspiracies you imagined when you were fourteen turn out to be true in this masterful tale of Earth's desperate struggle against a powerful alien foe. Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian Armada proves Ernie Cline is the modern master of wish fulfillment literatureand of reminding us to be careful what we wish for. John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Old Man's War With another winning teen protagonist in Zach, Cline mines the nostalgia and geek spheres just as successfully as he did in his acclaimed debut, Ready Player One . The works that obviously influenced the story line, such as Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the films The Last Starfighter and Star Wars , feel like homages rather than borrowings- a rap artist sampling the best beats our there to create an irresistible jam. Library Journal (starred review) Cline once again brings crackling humor and fanboy knowledge to a zesty, crowd-pleasing, countdown-clock, save-the-planet tale featuring an unlikely hero, adrenaline-pumping action, gawky romance, and touching family moments. . . . Cline's sly, mind-twisting premise and energetically depicted and electrifying high-tech battles make for smart, frenetic, and satisfying entertainment. Booklist (starred review) Informationen zum Autor Ernest Cline Klappentext NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A rollicking alien invasion thriller that embraces and subverts science-fiction conventions, from the author of the worldwide phenomenon Ready Player One Exciting . . . mixes Star Wars , The Last Starfighter , Independence Day, and a really gnarly round of Space Invaders . USA Today A thrilling coming of age story. Entertainment Weekly Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. And too often, he catches himself wishing that some fantastic, impossible, world-altering event could arrive to whisk him off on a grand spacefaring adventure. So when he se...

Autorentext

Ernest Cline

Klappentext

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A rollicking alien invasion thriller that embraces and subverts science-fiction conventions, from the author of the worldwide phenomenon Ready Player One
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“Exciting . . . mixes Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, Independence Day, and a really gnarly round of Space Invaders.”—USA Today*

“A thrilling coming of age story.”—Entertainment Weekly**

Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. And too often, he catches himself wishing that some fantastic, impossible, world-altering event could arrive to whisk him off on a grand spacefaring adventure.

So when he sees the flying saucer, he's sure his years of escapism have finally tipped over into madness.

Especially because the alien ship he's staring at is straight out of his favorite videogame, a flight simulator callled Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting Earth from alien invaders.

As impossible as it seems, what Zack's seeing is all too real. And it's just the first in a blur of revlations that will force him to question everything he thought he knew about Earth's history, its future, even his own life--and to play the hero for real, with humanity's life in the balance.

But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can't help thinking: Doesn't something about this scenario feel a little bit like . . . well . . . fiction?

At once reinventing and paying homage to science-fiction classics, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a coming-of-age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you've ever read before.

Leseprobe
1

I was staring out the classroom window and daydreaming of adventure when I spotted the flying saucer.

I blinked and looked again--but it was still out there, a shiny chrome disc zigzagging around in the sky. My eyes struggled to track the object through a series of increasingly fast, impossibly sharp turns that would have juiced a human being, had there been any aboard. The disc streaked toward the distant horizon, then came to an instantaneous stop just above it. It hovered there motionless over the distant tree line for a few seconds, as if scanning the area beneath it with an invisible beam, before it abruptly launched itself skyward again, making another series of physics-defying changes to its course and speed.

I tried to keep my cool. I tried to remain skeptical. I reminded myself that I was a man of science, even if I did usually get a C in it.

I looked at it again. I still couldn’t tell what it was, but I knew what it wasn’t--it wasn’t a meteor. Or a weather balloon, or swamp gas, or ball lightning. No, the unidentified flying object I was staring at with my own two eyes was most definitely not of this earth.

My first thought was: Holy fucking shit.

Followed immediately by: I can’t believe it’s finally happening.

You see, ever since the first day of kindergarten, I had been hoping and waiting for some mind-blowingly fantastic, world-altering event to finally shatter the endless monotony of my public education. I had spent hundreds of hours gazing out at the calm, conquered suburban landscape surrounding my school, silently yearning for the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse, a freak accident that would give me super powers, or perhaps the sudden appearance of a band of time-traveling kleptomaniac dwarves.

I would estimate that approximately one-third of these dark daydreams of mine had involved the unexpected arrival of beings from another world.

Of course, I’d never believed it would really happen. Even if alien visitors did decide to drop by this utterly insignificant little blue-green planet, no self-respecting extraterrestrial would ever pick my hometown of Beaverton, Oregon--aka Yawnsville, USA--as their point of first contact. Not unless their plan was to destroy our civilization by wiping out our least interesting locales first. If there was a bright center to the universe, I was on the planet it was farthest from. Please pass the blue milk, Aunt Beru.

But now something miraculous was happening here--it was still happening, right now! There was a goddamn flying saucer out there. I was staring right at it.

And I was pretty sure it was gettin…