Armada – The Pre-Read

I should have posted this a week ago – whoops!

I did a lot of reading last weekend during the readathon, in a relatively short amount of time, and just did not get a chance to post like I normally do. I was so excited to share my thoughts on Fangirl that I didn’t even bother with a pre-read post. Some super secret insider knowledge about me – I always collect my thoughts BEFORE reading a book, but almost never have the patience to record them here first. My pre-read posts are almost exclusively written after finishing the book, and post dated (tricky, I know).

To deceive is human. I’m almost positive that’s how that saying goes…No? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Look, I’m working on it, and one of my goals moving forward is to get these posts out ahead of time. Starting right after City of Bones though, because I already read that one too. But then that’s it, I promise.

But enough about that, let’s talk about Armada.

Well, first let’s talk about Ready Player One, referred to from this point forward as RPO. I enjoyed the bejesus out of RPO, and am quite certain have never had so much fun reading a book. It was smart, fast paced, hilarious, touching, exciting, and had SO MANY NERDY DETAILS. Cline had my geeky brain exploding with joy from beginning to end. I finished it, told everyone on the face of the planet that I knew to read it, and promptly looked for more of his work.

At the time, Armada was not out yet, but its impending existence had been announced and I could hardly contain my excitement. Flash forward to a few weeks after it came out, and the reviews started rolling in. They were less than stellar (and that’s putting it kindly), and so disappointing. In fact, I read so many disheartening reviews, that I removed it entirely from my Amazon TBR wish list. (If you listen really closely, you can hear my wife in the background quietly pleading with me to remove more so we don’t have to take out a second mortgage on our house to keep up with my bookish demands. It’s a sickness.)

Not until I discovered the Blogging for Books program did I cross paths with this book again. If you haven’t already, you should go check them out. If you sign up, Penguin Random House will send you books (that YOU pick) in exchange for your honest thoughts about them. If that’s not the greatest thing you’ve ever heard, I just don’t know what is. I signed up a couple of weeks ago, and Armada came up on my option list. I figured it was a sign for me to give it another shot, and so I did.

Some additional super secret insider information about me – I’ve always envied my fellow book lovers and bloggers, who are constantly receiving books and ARCs for review, and always hoped to one day get the same opportunity. Needless to say, receiving this book was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me.

Since I already spilled the beans, you know that I write this pre-read post having already finished Armada. I’ll get my review up for it in the next day or two. Have any of you had a chance to read this one? What did you think?