Review: Good Alien Invasion Epic
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 30, 2012
A.G. Claymore has crafted a fine alien invasion sci fi story.  Book started out great, introducing main characters with multiple points of view against backdrop of aliens arriving on Mars.  Author does a good job of creating tension on whether aliens are friends or foes before settling the issue.  I did feel that some parts of the story were rushed as the author seemed to have one or two too many balls in the air at once.  Story still flowed well but the terrorist storyline, in particular, seemed to develop slowly then rush to a few spectacular scenes without fully concluding the storyline.There are some minor spoilers in this paragraph but nothing that is more than a few chapters into the book.  Setting is the near future, starting in year 2016, and opens with the aliens arriving at Mars Colony.  Earth mobilizes for hostile aliens while hoping for friendly aliens.  There were many interesting details on societal impacts that arise from cost to mobilize.  It seemed a stretch to me that the UN becomes a powerful central player in this story; while it may be the most logical venue for global coordination, it was a little difficult to accept that UN becomes this effective.  Overall this was a good story which I enjoyed.The Black Ships is a standalone novel albeit with a conclusion which begs for a sequel.  Author's website indicates that a sequel is anticipated this summer (March 27th,2012 reply to a fan comment).  There is also a novella published,Metamorphosis (The Black Ships), in the same universe.No major editing issues were noticed. The Black Ships is 5,574 Kindle locations long. Standard length novels seem to run in the 4,500 to 7,000 plus Kindle location range. For example, books in Jack Campbell's first Lost Fleet series were approximately 5,000 Kindle locations.