From the author of Ready Player One, a rollicking alien invasion thriller that embraces and subverts science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could. Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. And too often, he catches himself wishing that some fantastic, impossible, world-altering event could arrive to whisk him off on a grand spacefaring adventure. So when he sees the flying saucer, he's sure his years of escapism have finally tipped over into madness. Especially because the alien ship he's staring at is straight out of his favorite videogame, a flight simulator callled Armada--in which gamers just happen to be protecting Earth from alien invaders. As impossible as it seems, what Zack's seeing is all too real. And it's just the first in a blur of revlations that will force him to question everything he thought he knew about Earth's history, its future, even his own life--and to play the hero for real, with humanity's life in the balance. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can't help thinking: Doesn't something about this scenario feel a little bit like...well...fiction? At once reinventing and paying homage to science-fiction classics as only Ernest Cline can, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a coming-of-age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you've ever read before.

The story of the last great naval battle between England and Spain, evoking a number of colorful and dangerous personalities who fought in the climactic conclusion to these two countries’ great rivalry on the sea. Ireland: Christmas Eve, 1601. As thunder crashes and lightning rakes the sky, three very different commanders line up for a battle that will decide the fate of a nation. General Juan del Águila has been sprung from a prison cell to command the last great Spanish armada. His mission: to seize a bridgehead in Queen Elizabeth's England and hold it. Facing him is Charles Blount, a brilliant English strategist whose career is also under a cloud. His affair with a married woman edged him into a treasonous conspiracy—and brought him to within a hair’s breadth of the gallows. Meanwhile, Irish insurgent Hugh O’Neill knows that this is his final chance to drive the English out of Ireland. For each man, this is the last throw of the dice. Tomorrow they will be either heroes or failures. These colorful commanders come alive in this true story of courage and endurance, of bitterness and betrayal, and of drama and intrigue at the highest levels in the courts of England and Spain.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. “Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready? In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club “Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost “An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN “A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe “Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR “[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

The year is 2047. A sudden insurgence of alien creatures has burst forth from the interior of Earth, taking up the mantel of the righteous crusade and vying for the blood of every man, woman and child on the planet. There seems to be no hope, as the alien race is merciless and efficient, and its ultimate goal is beyond human comprehension. Enter Davis Martin, United States Marine Corps Cadet and one of the first people to have encountered this new enemy in the field. Can he complete his training and graduate into the ranks of the military before the entire world is engulfed in uncontrollable flame? And if so, will he have what it takes to make a difference? An English prince with a penchant for narcissism and chauvinistic passion, has a dark secret. Despite being the most successful capitalist in history, he hungers for more power - seeking it from the depths of this new race's psyche. Can he control the enemy long enough to get what he wants, or will he be destroyed with the rest of humanity? Finally, Arr'itaoll, the Warlord of the Scuratt'ka, a being that is effectively Commander and Chief, General, Judge and Executioner all in one, has a morality problem. He has lived his entire life being told there is but one glorious purpose to his existence: destroying humanity in its entirety. However, is this 'glorious crusade' truly in the cards for him? Or will he turn his back on his own race and help the ones he has sworn to destroy? Only time will tell...

In this dramatic hour-by-hour, blow-by-blow account of the Spanish Armada's attempt to destroy Elizabeth's England, Robert Hutchinson spins a compelling and unbelievable narrative. After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe, including Spain. In October 1585, King Philip II of Spain declared his intention to destroy Protestant England and began preparing invasion plans, leading to an intense intelligence war between the two countries and culminating in the dramatic sea battles of 1588. Popular history dictates that the defeat of the Spanish Armada was a David versus Goliath victory, snatched by plucky and outnumbered English forces. In this tightly written and fascinating new history, Robert Hutchinson explodes this myth, revealing the true destroyers of the Spanish Armada—inclement weather and bad luck. Of the 125 Spanish ships that set sail against England, only 60 limped home, the rest wrecked or sank with barely a shot fired from their main armament. Using everything from contemporary eyewitness accounts to papers held by the national archives in Spain and the United Kingdom, Hutchinson re-creates one of history's most famous episodes in an entirely new way.

The inter-galactic world is taking shape and the armada comes in contact with several species within the sphere. They encounter the evil between species and had to improvise to help their own. Local issues on earth had to be addressed to remove any threat to armada personnel on earth. They first encountered a species made extremely evil by their misguided reading of the texts. They devised a god contest after fighting with bows and arrows. They were forewarned of an exploding star and they launched the largest rescue and evacuation operation in the galaxies. Along the way they had to deal with an errant commander who made more than a million Marinties as robot soldiers and a species out to exterminate their kind violently. An orphan planet moving about revealed a lost moon full of slaves and zombies. The moon revealed its secret forcing the Armada to face the greatest threat from the most powerful empire in the galaxies, fulfill the prophecy and remove the Tosban threat.

The Spanish Aramda is a radical interpretation of why Philip II's Armada of 1588 failed so disastrously. This new edition is based on a fresh examination of archival sources across Europe, combined with the archaeological investigation of some of its wrecked ships off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. The new edition has been extensively revised to incorporate ten further years of research by the authors and others, and is likely to remain the standard account for years to come.

The definitive history of the Spanish Armada, lavishly illustrated and fully revised “Will surely become the definitive account.”—Stephen Brumwell, Wall Street Journal In July 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed from Corunna to conquer England. Three weeks later an English fireship attack in the Channel—and then a fierce naval battle—foiled the planned invasion. Many myths still surround these events. The genius of Sir Francis Drake is exalted, while Spain’s efforts are belittled. But what really happened during that fateful encounter? Drawing on archives from around the world, Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker also deploy vital new evidence from Armada shipwrecks off the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. Their gripping, beautifully illustrated account provides a fresh understanding of how the rival fleets came into being; how they looked, sounded, and smelled; and what happened when they finally clashed. Looking beyond the events of 1588 to the complex politics which made war between England and Spain inevitable, and at the political and dynastic aftermath, Armada deconstructs the many legends to reveal why, ultimately, the bold Spanish mission failed.

The armada's contribution to the tenacious survival of Spanish hegemony.