For Zack Lightman er det bare nok en dag på skolen. Han dagdrømmer og titter ut av klasseromsvinduet - og ser rett på en UFO. Zack tror først han er blitt gal. Fordi UFOen han stirrer på er som tatt rett ut av videospillet han spiller hver kveld, den populære online-flysimulatoren Armada, som beskytter jorden mot fremmede inntrengere. Men det Zack ser er reelt. Hans ferdigheter - og ferdighetene til millioner av spillere over hele verden - kommer til å trengs for å redde jorden fra trusselen som venter. Men selv da han og hans nye kamerater rykker ut for å forberede seg på angrep, kan Zack ikke la være å tenke på alle de science fiction-bøkene, TV-programmene og filmene han vokste opp med, og lurer: er det ikke noe med dette scenariet som virker litt for kjent?
This is the new novel from the bestselling author of ready player one. It's just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. He's day dreaming 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 video game 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.