But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar? It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero.

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. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.Įven stranger, the alien ship 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. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.īut hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Ready Player One was first published in 2011 and debuted this past week to over $181 million at the global box office.Other books by Ernest Cline reviewed on this blog: The novel infuses itself with plenty of pop culture references like Ready Player One (including the obvious ones like Flight of the Navigator, The Last Starfighter, and Ender’s Game), while also embracing and subverting science fiction conventions.Īrmada has been in development at Universal since 2012, three years before the novel was even published.

He gets his wish after all as he’s chosen to save the universe after learning that the online flight simulator he plays, called Armada, isn’t just a game after all but a training tool for a real alien invasion. Dan Mazeau ( Wrath of the Titans, Flashpoint) has been tapped to pen the script for the adaptation, which is set up at Universal Pictures.Īrmada was released four years after Ready Player One and tells the story of Zack Lightman, a gamer with dreams of something bigger than his mundane life and with hopes of something miraculous happening to him.

Following the success of Ready Player One this weekend, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that author Ernest Cline’s other novel, Armada, is gearing up for the big screen as well.

Armada 2 ernest cline