Genre
Science Fiction
Setting and Context
The story is set in a dystopian future in the year 2044.
Narrator and Point of View
First-person point of view from the perspective of Zack Lightman a high school senior.
Tone and Mood
Tone: Curious and Diplomatic
Mood: Energetic and Suspenseful
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Zack Lightman Antagonist: The extraterrestrial army from Europa invading earth.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is that Earth Defense Alliance has been preparing for interplanetary warfare and skilled soldiers – unknowingly trained – such as Zack have to fight in it.
Climax
The climax of the narrative is the plot twist that reveals the Emissary as a machine created by the intergalactic community to test humans. The invasion was a front to determine the eligibility of Earth as a member of the Solidarity.
Foreshadowing
In his ‘late’ father’s notebook, Zack finds the entry “The entire videogame industry is secretly under the control of the US military…They may have even invented the videogame industry! WHY?”
This foreshadows the realization that the Earth Defense Alliance has used the industry to train potential combatants. Moreover, the simulation game foreshadows the entire plot as the characters are meant to unknowingly prepare themselves for the alien invasion that takes place.
Understatement
“Unbeknownst to me, I had just scored the first enemy kill of the battle, and the war.”
As a real-life combatant in the war against the aliens, Zack still compares the battle with the simulation game he is accustomed to. The statement is an understatement taking into account the real-life stakes.
Allusions
The novel makes several allusions to the late 20th-century pop culture including videogames, music, films, and comic books. The protagonist refers to movie plots, characters, and superheroes to make sense of his world as the line between fantasy and reality is blurred. Specifically, the novel draws from films such as The Last Starfighter and Ender's Game which share a similar premise of simulation games and alien invasions.
Imagery
“The enormous bowl-shaped auditorium had stadium-style seating that faced an enormous curved projection screen, making it look more like an IMAX theater than a top-secret underground briefing room. But the ceiling was a different story--it was a long, sloping grid of concrete waffle slabs, each reinforced with shock-absorption springs at its center.”
Paradox
“Why would real aliens behave exactly like videogame simulations of themselves?”
Parallelism
The narrator denotes parallels between himself and fictional characters in films such as Star War’s Luke Skywalker to express his motives. Moreover draws the parallels of other people in his life with film characters for instance compares his mother to Terminator’s Sarah Connor and Alien’s Ellen Ripley.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“You cannot escape your destiny, he said in his best Obi-Wan” – The name Obi-Wan acts as a metonymy for words of wisdom.
Personification
N/A
