Armada available for Pre-Order

So if you are between the ages of 20 and 45, are even a remote fan of 80's pop culture or just really into video games and have not read the incredible Ready Player One by Ernext Cline, you should find a mirror and take a good hard look at yourself.

My and RPO's love story began when I found a deliciously malleable softcover at the airport news stand and took it with me for company on a flight to London. Within a few pages I was thinking 'holy crap what have I stumbled onto here' and grinning maniacally at my wife in the seat next to me. After the expected 'what did I marry' look was returned I settled in and read it straight through. Then we stopped at London and changed flights to go to Italy so I read it again.

I've never done that before but this book hit just exactly the right combination of fun, fantasy and science fiction. When I began to pick up the odd first edition here and there it was top of my list and it was not long before one was sitting on my shelf under the guard of a post battle scarred Tyrion Lanister.

So now we have the long awaited second book from Mr Cline and here is the synopsis

It’s just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. He's daydreaming through another boring math class, with just one more month to go until graduation and freedom—if he can make it that long without getting suspended again. Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer. At first, Zack thinks he’s going crazy. A minute later, he’s sure of it. Because the UFO 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. But what Zack’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. Yet even as he and his new comrades scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught, Zack can’t help thinking of all the science-fiction books, TV shows, and movies he grew up reading and watching, and wonder: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little too… familiar? Armada is at once 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 author Ernest Cline’s trademark pop-culture savvy.

Sounds a bit Last Starfighter meets Enders Game if you ask me and that's an interesting take on an old idea especially as it sounds like Zack Lightman might have watched Last Starfighter and read Enders Game.

If you would like to Pre-Order Armada you can do so direct from Random House publishing here - http://www.randomhouse.com/book/228333/armada-by-ernest-cline

Personally I am a sucker for a signed edition, so will wait a little longer for information regarding that option. I'm hoping he does some kind of book tour where I can get my RPO signed and meet the man himself.

Please send me an ARC Random House!!!!