I was staring out the classroom window and daydreaming of adventure when I spotted the flying saucer.
These are the opening words of the novel. As opening lines go, one must admit it is an attention-grabber. If lucky enough to be browsing through an actual bookstore and coming across a copy randomly, this is the kind of attention-grabber that could well stimulate a sale. At the same time, however, buzzwords like “flying saucer” can also be problematic. In that very same bookstore there will be other browsers who metaphorically flee such topics. The author has a very definite target audience in mind, however, so the gamble is not a great leap. That target audience is likely to respond well to this opening line.
“I know the future is scary at times, sweetheart. But there’s just no escaping it.”
Pamela Lightman is described as a cross between Sarah Conner of The Terminator of Ellen Ripley of Alien. The result is a woman the narrator describes as “the coolest woman” he’s ever met. That narrator, keep in mind, is Pamela Lightman’s son. So that is truly praise of the highest sort. This quote closes Chapter Four. It is the kind of advice that a mother would give a son in any sort of story, but it takes on a greater resonance, of course, in light of the fact that this is literally a story about fighting for the future of the species. It also works in a routine teenage angst sort of level.
The release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 seemed to be the timeline’s focal point. My father had circled that entry several times and drawn a series of arrows linking it to at least a dozen other items further down the timeline—including a bunch of videogames that the Star Wars franchise had helped inspire, like Space Invaders, Starhawk, Elite, and Wing Commander. Armada wasn’t listed on my father’s timeline, of course—nor was any other game released in the past eighteen years. His final entry was the one noting the release of Galaxy Quest in 1999.
One of the criticisms which faced the book upon its release was that it relies too much upon pop culture referencing to make points. A widespread consensus among its most potent critics on this point is that at times the novel seems to almost veer into the arena of postmodern pastiche with its allusions to familiar science fiction touchstones like Doctor Who and Star Wars. The actual plot of the story, however, is rather slyly merely alluded to in this passage rather than becoming an explanatory bit of exposition. The cult status of the big-budgeted, big-star science fiction comedy Galaxy Quest indicates its box office disappointment. What is not mentioned here is the plot of Galaxy Quest involves the stars of a long-since-canceled Star Trek-like TV series being called into action to fight an actual alien invasion with the not inconsiderable assistance of a gamer much like the hero of this story.
