Review: Three Surprises
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 1, 2014
It has been a very long time since I made it to the end of a book with a smile on my face and my eyes wet with a happy and good feeling. The author did an outstanding job with the ending, the journey was a bit rough, some very unexpected twist and turns and for the second half of the story I was actually thinking of the title to a review, 'Rooted for the Bad Guys'. It was a roller coaster ride that was unlike most of the current series of books of Mr. Andrews that I've read.I'll go ahead and say spoiler alert, even though I think I will be vague or they will be minor. Spoilers by implication or if you have read this series up to now and use to a few others, its more in the line of familiar themes. That said, we're off.It started out delving into action and the introduction to what I presumed were the main antagonist, they fit the role well enough, paranoia, xenophobia and of course the nearly signature most horrific trait in an Andrew series, they eat intelligent beings.I do have to applaud Mr. Andrew for the delicate way he wrote to demonstrate that last trait, he presented it in a fashion that the squeamish would get the idea of what was happening, yet if they are sensitive to such scenes, it was not detailed so it could just be seen and then moved on with the story. Unlike many authors who take a moment out to show how bad the antagonist is, and feel the need to continue to present such horrific moments, this one scene is it. Its mentioned, and implied elsewhere, but it doesn't beat the reader over the head with having to show just how bad the bad guys are.That said came my first surprise, which colored my outlook for most of the story, came when some of the protagonist seem to actually approve of what the antagonist were doing. While I was absolutely horrified, I was also impressed with how Mr. Andrew presented the discussion in an intelligent manner so that it was plausible why some of the protagonist might just think it was okay for the victims to be eaten.Surprise number two came later on in the series when we find out that there is a second antagonist. Yet the surprise was not the turn of the story that appeared to be another enemy of my enemy, which given the earlier discussion I thought that was where it was going. Instead the surprise, for me, was that this new enemy was one I found I could root for. This was not because of what they believed or how they went about it, no, they were definitely antagonist if only for how they went about their acts. I felt like rooting for them because of their motivation. Mr. Andrew also provided several scenes where one could sympathize with them even though how they went about their goals were deplorable. It was because they felt they were doing something right. It was presented in a warm and touching manner that had me feeling the protagonist were the cold and heartless monsters. Let me stress that these antagonist are -antagonist-, make no mistake there, they are in the wrong, but their heart was in the right place.That was something I felt was missing from this series for a number of books.Since the early days of Chris and the gang, when they were concerned about doing the right thing over survival or probably in addition to survival, their descendents seemed for books to just be concerned with survival. Living that way in real life, I know there is more to life than survival and it was one reason I just fell in love with Mr. Andrew's series, when his heroes seem to echo that do what is right approach, and not just be out to survive for the next day.Surprise number three was also a very pleasant one when the book series went back to its roots with the subject of time. It didn't remain yet another space fleet fight story with preparations against the enemy took up most of the story. And when it did come to fleet fights by this point, it was a massive and epic one. Yet I still felt more sympathy for the second antagonist than I did for the protagonist. At this point I almost wanted the bad guys to win, even though the losses on the side of 'good' were heart felt and very personal to the 'heroes' and there were more than a few touching moments.Once time travel entered the equation, it had some delightful twist, which by the end of the story, had me smiling with an uplifting feel good feeling that otherwise I would not have given this book 5 stars. Those stars were for the end, the journey was a bit rough and more a 3 star voyage than the 5 star ending.That said, the 5 star ending was worth the 3 star journey. I hope others will find it the same or have a 5 star journey all the way through the book to its finished.Even now, thinking back to that end, it puts the smile back on my face. Thank you Mr. Andrew for writing this.