Buy on Amazon
Buy on Audible
Rating: 9.5/10 Stars
Synopsis
First Contact didn't go as expected. Now they own us.
Earth has been conquered by a massive galactic empire, and its war machine needs soldiers. In a cruel twist of fate, 14-year-old Joe Dobbs accidentally ends up on a ship carrying Earth's children to an alien training planet. To make it out alive, he must survive an apathetic bureaucracy that sees humans as little more than spare rations. Meat with guns. Or, if they're really unlucky, servants. The oldest of the children drafted from humanity's devastated planet, Joe unwittingly becomes the centerpiece in a millennia-long alien struggle for independence. Once his training begins, one of the elusive and prophetic Trith gives Joe a spine chilling prophecy that the universe has been anticipating for millions of years: Joe will be the one to finally shatter the vast alien government known as Congress. And, the Trith cannot lie.…but first, Joe has to make it through boot camp.
For lovers of sci-fi thrillers, alien invasion stories, space opera, and sprawling first contact science fiction, this is an unforgettable post-apocalyptic epic about perseverance and survival in a harsh new world where humanity is just another item on the menu.
Review
Imagine if in Ender's Game the aliens hadn't attacked, forcing Earth to develop its super genius kids to take the fight to them. What if instead they showed up in such overwhelming force, offering to bring Earth into their alliance, that Earth had no choice but to acquiesce? All for the low price of 98% of earth's children aged 5-12, taken off world to join the alien Congress's military. It's this premise that makes this intriguing novel take off.
The world the author created is very intriguing. Its a a harsh universe, with the Congress worried most about compliance of it's members. There are some truly frightening alien races in the polity, races that are basically "only release in case of war" types of murder monsters. This is the universe the characters find themselves in, a universe that has a very stratified caste system, and new meat for the war machine is not held in any regard, cast aside when it's usefulness is gone.
The characters are really what drew me in though. Joe Dobbs is such an excellent, if tragic, MC. From the very beginning you can tell that he has a protective streak a mile long. This protectiveness plays against the injustice of the children being drafted to become cannon fodder in an alien army, an injustice that Joe feels even worse, since he is past the age he should have been taken, but his actions protecting others ended up with him here. He is surrounded by an excellent cast of fellow humans, who grow amazingly over the course of the story, in both good and bad ways. They really add their own flair to the story, and you are immersed into their lives as well as Joe's.
The antagonists are the new "allies" of Earth, the members of the Congress races. They care not a whit what happens to the humans for the most part, seeing them as weak, squishy primitives, although one race holds the potential future for humanity, as a prophecy about Joe from one of these mysterious aliens shows all may not be lost for humanity. There are a couple of truly scary races in the Congress, and the author does an excellent job highlighting that menace without going overboard. Definitely not alien races you'd choose to cross.
The narration is handled by Jeff Hays. He does an excellent job bringing the various characters to life, especially considering the differences in ages, genders and species. He works really hard to differentiate each of the characters, and creates some cool voice effects for the various aliens. I definitely recommend checking out this version if you can.
I really got sucked into this story, pretty much from page one. The combination of creative worldbuilding and characters who are so multifaceted just really appealed to me. It's come to my attention that the author considers this her weakest work, and I have to say, if her weakest is this good, I can't wait to get to the rest of the series. I can really see this book having appeal for fans of sci-fi with a darker twist, with great characters and an action packed plot that races along. I highly recommend it!
Comments
Post a Comment