Armada

Metadata

  • Author: Ernest Cline
  • Full Title: Armada
  • Category: #books

Highlights

  • there was probably life elsewhere. But given the vast size and age of the universe, I also knew how astronomically unlikely it was we would ever make contact with it, much less within the narrow window of my own lifetime. (Location 163)
  • We were all probably stuck here for the duration, on the third rock from our sun. Boldly going extinct. (Location 164)
  • classic science fiction novel Ender’s Game, (Location 411)
  • I’d never even heard of Iron Eagle until I saw it mentioned in my father’s journal and watched the VHS copy of it I found among his things. The film had instantly become one of my go-to guilty-pleasure movies. (Location 414)
  • It had been founded back in 2010 by a Bay Area videogame developer named Finn Arbogast, who quit a lucrative job working on the Battlefield series for Electronic Arts to venture out on his own. He founded Chaos Terrain with the lofty goal of “creating the next generation of multiplayer VR games.” Arbogast had then assembled a dream team of creative consultants and contractors to help make his bold claim a reality, luring some of the videogame industry’s brightest stars away from their own companies and projects, with the sole promise of collaborating on his groundbreaking new MMOs. That was how gaming legends like Chris Roberts, Richard Garriott, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Gabe Newell, and Shigeru Miyamoto had all wound up as consultants on both Terra Firma and Armada—along with several big Hollywood filmmakers, including James Cameron, who had contributed to the EDA’s realistic ship and mech designs, and Peter Jackson, whose Weta Workshop had rendered all of the in-game cinematics. (Location 678)
  • “That’s how you know you’ve mastered a videogame—when a bunch of butt-hurt crybabies start to accuse you of cheating in an effort to cope with the beatdown they’ve just suffered at your hands.” (Location 904)
  • “This is your QComm,” he explained. “It’s a Quantum Communicator—basically a smartphone with unlimited range. It will work anywhere in the world—or in outer space.” (Location 1510)
  • Each one can be used to remote-pilot an Interceptor, an ATHID, or any other drone in the EDA’s arsenal—with no lag and no range limitations.” (Location 1553)
  • “How could you possibly know if I’ve ‘got a temper’?” I asked, the anger rising in my voice like mercury. My father laughed involuntarily at the irony of my response, but it was lost on me, and his reaction only made me feel even more hurt and pissed off. (Location 2885)
  • “The Sentinel,” the short story by Arthur C. Clarke that served as the initial inspiration for 2001’s artifact-left-behind-by-ancient-aliens storyline (Location 3629)
  • ‘I must not fear,’ ” she recited. “ ‘Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.’ ” I laughed and picked up the quote where she’d left off. “ ‘I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.’ ” “ ‘And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path,’ ” she continued. “ ‘Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.’ (Location 3933)
  • ‘All things are ready, if our minds be so,’ (Location 3956)

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