Armada by Ernest Cline

Crown, 368 pages, $26

Ernest Cline’s first book, “ Ready Player One,” was on MBTB’s best books of the year list. Its characters were engaging, the story had real heart to it, and its vision of a post-apocalyptic Earth was grim but not hopeless. It’s disappointing that none of that applies to Cline’s second book, “Armada.”

The main character is a short-tempered, whiny eighteen-year-old gamer. The plot of “Armada” was done better in “The Last Starfighter.”

Bah, humbug!