Book Review: Armada by Ernest Cline

Now where do I begin?

 This book follows Zack Lightman who is a gamer and pop culture enthusiast. In this world there's this game called Armada a popular online flight simulator in which the players must protect earth from alien invaders.
  One day while looking out the window in class he see's a flying saucer just like one the invading aliens use in Armada. No he's not losing his mind like he think he his. The aliens are all too real and his skills in the game Armada are about to come in handy.

 I loved Zack his thought process is sometimes how I think. Relating situations to things seen in movies, TVShows, and what I've read in books. I also really enjoyed the relationship he had with his mother.
 Despite things they were really close and it was nice to read about.

  "You can do great things. She looked me in the eyes. You know that, right? 

 I felt thought that besides Zach most of the other character's didn't get enough screen time.  I mean I liked them well enough from the brief time we get to spend with them. It's just so much stuff happened in such a short amount of time. I felt like it should have been drawn out a little more and It definitely should have been a longer book.

 Then of course there were the 80's pop culture references everywhere. I heard a lot of people were annoyed by this but I didn't mind them I understand why the main character was attached and it made me nostalgic sometimes. Other times I didn't know what he was talking about it but it sounded interesting enough for me to go look it up and occasionally add things to my To-Watch list Lol.

Also some of the technical details for the ships kind of bogged things down for me. Would have been nice to have some sketches occupying each explanation.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel. There's potential there for a sequel, but still works as a stand alone. Definitely think this would make an awesome movie if done CORRECTLY. There's so much more I want to talk about, but I don't want to spoil anyone.

In the end gave it 4/5 stars and For full disclosure I got this book for review in exchange for honest review from "Blogging For Books".

Book Review: The Chaos Of Stars by Kiersten White

This book follows this teenage girl Isadora. Her parents are the God and Goddess, Osiris and Isis respectively. While they are immortal beings she is not and this knowledge is basically the problem of the whole book. It's just teenage angst with some mythology thrown in.

That's not to say I didn't like the book or more accurately grow to like the book. I say that because the main characters is annoying and listening to her yap the whole book was no fun in the least.

Let's start with the world. Where in the modern world. It starts off in Egypt but most of the book takes place in America.

Isadora who feels like her parents don't love her or even care she exist. Desperately wants to leave and manages to do so when her mother is having a vulnerable time. She is I'm going to say once again. Annoying, Whiny, Self-centered, and at times arrogant. It's not like you don't see where she's coming from but at the same time it all could have been solved by I don't know actually talking to her parents but of course even though she's supposed to be smart this is a thing she actively avoids. Although the talking thing could be said about most plot lines in books in general but she really rubbed me the wrong way and I felt no sympathy for her. Her parents, siblings, and friends on the other hand I have massive sympathy for. Although how she even mange to get friends with that attitude is a miracle in and of itself.

Although towards the end she kind of pulls her head out of her...you know where I was going. It still didn't excuse the first half of the book where all I did was hope she would find a cliff and walk off of it. As you can tell I had strong feelings.

Now she manipulates/convinces her parents to send her to live with her brother Sirius who's in his 30's and married. He seemed nice and had a good relationship with their parents much to her surprise. She seemed to think that just because she did not have a good relationship with her parents (her own doing) that all her siblings had to feel and act the same way she did.

I can't say to much about the other characters because while Isadora had a little character development the others had none really.

There was Taylor who she meets when volunteering at the museum. She was perky and nice. So was her boyfriend Scott.

Then there's the love interest Ry who was interesting as well. They didn't go much into detail with anyone though and while I love the snippets of learning of Egyptian Mythology. The book was rushed. There was a mystery of some sorts that was wrap-up fast and could have been done better. This was more like a teen drama with misunderstandings around every corner.

All in all I did like the book but didn't love it. It had a lot potential but fell short and that saddens me. I will be checking out the authors other books Paranormalcy & Mind Games because I loved her writing style and just some of the quotes I had to update my Goodreads were amazing and Occasionally I really liked Isadora's humour. Those moments of liking her happened more the toward the end of the book though.

In the end I liked the book, But it didn't really deliver on some of the things it promised. So 2/5 stars.