Armada

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.