Armada
"Armada" by Ernest Cline. Random House/Crown Publishing

What a time to be a geek: Video games are mainstream, science fiction and superhero movies dominate the box office and Pluto is grabbing headlines around the world.

Ernest Cline just happens to be in the right place at the right time. The author and screenwriter just released "Armada." Following the success of his debut, "Ready Player One," "Armada" is a New York Times best-seller, debuting at No. 4 on the list. Oh, and Steven Spielberg is directing the film version of "Ready Player One" while "Armada" is optioned for a movie.

So, what does it feel like to be the luckiest geek alive? Cline is back in Austin, Texas, after a whirlwind book tour that started at San Diego Comic-Con and saw him travel around the country. "I was joking to everybody who gave me a hard time about my second book taking too long. I'm like, 'Hey, Harper Lee's second book just came out," Cline told International Business Times, laughing.

"Star Wars," "Battlestar Galactica " and anime like "Robotech" and "Cowboy Bebop" were just a few of Cline's influences while writing "Armada." The novel involves an alien invasion, unlikely adventures and plenty of video games.

Despite competition from best-sellers "Go Set a Watchman" and "Grey," "Armada" is a massive and unlikely success. "I don't know the last time a science-fiction-themed novel about alien invasions debuted in the top five," Cline said. "It's really quite amazing and a testament to how popular my first book has become. It's so overwhelming and I've had to stay late everywhere I go to sign books. It's really humbling."

Cline lives and breathes the geek life. All of those references are not meant to show off his knowledge, but are just the way he would talk and share ideas with friends.

In addition to best-sellers, Cline is trying to find ways to get himself in NASA's history books. While writing "Armada," astronaut Kjell Lindgren gave him a tour of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. Lindgren launched to the International Space Station last week and carried with him covers of Cline's two novels -- possibly making "Armada" the first cover of a current best-seller to be in space. "I'm just trying to squeeze into NASA history on his coattails," Cline joked.

When Cline was writing "Ready Player One," he was not sure anyone would care about the book or even read it, he said, but he was completely wrong. Publishers had a bidding war for the novel and the same process played out when the movie rights were up for grabs. Cline's first novel about a kid going on an epic virtual reality quest -- with plenty of geek references -- rang true for many fans. The popularity is still a bit surreal for Cline and that feeling was only magnified when Spielberg agreed to direct the film version.

"I feel like I'm in 'The Matrix' or Vanilla Sky' and I'm making it all up in my head. There's no way I could drive a DeLorean and have Steven Spielberg make my first novel into a movie." Cline said. "He's only made someone's first novel into a movie once before and it was 'Jaws' by Peter Benchley. Talk about unreal. That was one of the first movies I saw that terrified me. Both of my books couldn't have been written if I hadn't grown up on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films."

Cline believes one of the reasons that his books are so popular is because everyone who grew up with Atari or the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) are now making decisions and have nostalgia for the terrible graphics and hours of gaming from their youths. "I think a lot of people growing up in the late '70s, '80s and early '90s are all now in the entertainment industry. They're writers, journalists, filmmakers and musicians that have all grown up during that time and now they're able draw on that for their own art," Cline said. "I think that's why in the '80s there was so many coming-of-age movies set in the '50s or '60s. It's nostalgia of their youth and this generation grew up with video games, comics, superheroes, Saturday morning cartoons and '80s movies."

You don't need to know all the references to games like "Black Tiger" or music from Duran Duran to enjoy the appeal of Cline's novels. They work as great adventure stories. But it also helps that everyone is a bit of a geek these days, thanks to the Internet. "Whatever you're interested in now, you can find other people who are interested in it and have formed a club around that passion," Cline said. "Whether it's a team or a specific movie or TV show, the Internet lets everybody from around the world communicate, collaborate and share their own ideas with others. The Internet has connected people and created this culture that couldn't have existed before."

In "Armada," video games are central to the story and are a way for a government coalition to train regular civilians for an upcoming alien invasion. What was once a niche industry has become mainstream and professional gamers can make great money while e-sports can sell out stadiums and draw thousands of people who want to watch. "Video games have become a bigger entertainment industry than movies or music combined. So many people play videogames, even if it's just on their phone, and we grew up to see it evolve from Atari, where everything's block, to now where football games look almost like the real thing," Cline said.

Things will likely get crazier when virtual reality becomes mainstream. Oculus Rift will start shipping in 2016 while Microsoft's Hololens will be available in the near future. Cline's 7-year-old daughter won't know a world of wires and terrible graphics. Virtual reality also will likely be increasingly important as more people plug in. Much like Facebook and social media are important now, soon our avatars could be as important.

"All of this technology profoundly changed my life. I wouldn't be able to do all the things now without it," Cline said. The introduction of haptic feedback, better graphics and other VR improvements doesn't seem too far from reality and fit perfectly into Cline's two novels. "Armada" sees aliens and humans alike using drones to wage war. Forget about having pilots risk their lives in a X-wing when you can plug into a VR flight simulator that you can buy at a store.

The journey's not over for Cline. After wrapping up his book tour, he'll sit down to write the "Armada" screenplay. If you're worried Cline will miss out on the new "Star Wars" movie coming in December, or perhaps the "No Man's Sky" game, don't worry, Cline will take a few creative breaks for "research."