Zack Lightman is a video game fan. One day he sees an unidentified flying object from his classroom window. The unidentified flying object looks like a spacecraft that he always sees in a video game, Armada. Zack becomes doubtful of the situation because nobody seems to have spotted the spaceship. When Zack gets home that evening, he peruses through his father’s books to explore alien invasion. The following day a spacecraft lands on the school’s lawn. One of the crews aboard the spacecraft is Ray. Ray has adopted Zack since he was one year old when his father was alleged to have been killed. The spacecraft takes off with Zack on board.
Ray tells Zack about an imminent alien attack and the government’s plans to prevent the situation. Indeed, Zack realizes that Armada is a video game designed by the government for the sole purpose to train people to pilot drone ships and protect humans from the alien invasion. At the base, Zack falls in love with a tattooed woman name Lex. Here, he learns that the government has been preparing for an impending alien attack for more than 40 years. Zack with his colleagues become skeptical and question why aliens waited for this long to carry out the attack.
In the meantime, Zack discovers that his father is alive. The setup of the book is based on pop culture and how people are obsessed with it. Cline presents pop culture references cleverly to the amusement of the readers. By bringing video game motifs into play in Zack’s real world, Cline invites readers to consider the multifaceted opportunities that can result in the determination of the future. Armada makes readers reflect on fundamental philosophical inquiries about reality.
