YMMV / Armada

• Angst? What Angst?: Zack and the other recruits have been abruptly plucked from their ordinary lives and told that they will be the main force fighting a hostile and powerful alien race. As far as everyone knows, the war is going to pose a major existential threat to mankind, and even the best case scenarios predict a high civilian death toll and massive damage. But aside from a few token attempts at pointing out how serious the situation is supposed to be, nobody consistently treats it with the gravity you would expect. Whether in or out of combat, Zack and almost every other recruit mostly preoccupy themselves with making pop-culture references and jokes, and laughing at and applauding each other for making said references and jokes. They only briefly grow sombre when they receive the occasional report of the damage Earth has suffered, before going right back to joking and referencing stuff as if nothing is wrong. To make it more egregious, the various commanding officers do little to nothing to discourage this behavior, and even play along with it themselves most of the time.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Critics and readers were far harsher towards Armada than Ready Player One despite, or quite likely because of, hitting many of the same themes and beats. Coming out amidst the growing and ongoing backlash to that novel didn't help.
• So Okay, It's Average: Unlike Ready Player One which is somewhat divisive with many readers in the "Hate it" camp finding it So Bad, It's Good, Armada has been uniformly considered pretty much bland and repetitive. The main criticism is that the 80's references, which were a charming schtick in Ready Player One and at least served a narrative function in it, completely overtake the narrative with little else to support or deepen it.
• Squick: The main character's lust for his own mother: "Few young men know the Oedipal torment of growing up with an insanely hot, perpetually single mom."

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