Podcast Reaction: Vindication Edition

Hellboy is just a guy with a gun, Jenny? Do you know anything about Hellboy? For starters, he’s a lousy shot. For another, he’s a freakin’ prince of Hell!

This week on the podcast, the guys and Jenny did battle over various things, but I don’t want to cover that.

No, I want to cover their reaction to Armada, a book Jenny didn’t finish and Watson hated.  Now, I reviewed the book myself, and while I didn’t hate it, I likewise didn’t really enjoy it either.  It was perfectly meh, neither here nor there.  I’ve read bad books. Armada was not a bad book.

But I probably took a little heat for not enjoying Ernie Cline’s first novel, Ready Player One, as much as the others did, in part due to my nostalgia distaste.  Now, I want to expand on some points that Watson made in the podcast and a minor one I made on my review after the cut.

Geek Lit: Ernest Cline’s Armada (With SPOILERS)

Last week, Ryan posted a spoiler-free review of Ernest Cline’s second novel, Armada.  Now, Ryan is on-record of being a big fan of Cline’s first novel, Ready Player One.  Seriously, you don’t have to go beyond the first paragraph of that linked review to see it’s either his favorite or second favorite book depending on his mood.  Now me, I enjoyed Ready Player One for the most part, but not being as enamored with the 80s as the author appeared to be, it didn’t do as much for me as it did for Ryan and the other podcaster types.  Besides, I hate nostalgia.

I have since finished Armada myself and we here at Gabbing Geek are not above having multiple reviews of the same thing by different writers.

So, here’s my review for Armada.  SPOILERS after the cut.