Review: 3.75 Stars!!! Unusual Shifters
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2011
3.75 Stars!! While this is the fifth book written in the Shifter Evolutions series by Blackwelder, it has been subtitled Shifter Evolutions #1 since it is the prequel which tells the story of the actual invasion that started it all. Earlier this year I read and reviewedThe Shifters of 2040and, after reading this, I now understand more about the characters in that book. This author does something I so appreciate; includes a glossary of her world's terms in the front of the story.Blackwelder has created a totally unique type of "shifter" for her series. They are Eequeueans, "sentient beings of light", with three form types: natural alien, animal and human-like.It is the 4th of July 2020 in Alaska and meteors-like things fill the sky amongst the fireworks display but they don't just fall, they hover and streak sideways.This is the story of:Uri - who has an important part in the future, spends time in Alaska during his college life featuring his girlfriend Julie who so gets on my nerves with her screaming and panicking and who makes a decision which will forever change UriSamantha - and her dysfunctional marriage to Christopher caused by the death of her brother which causes her obsession with the shifters and trying to find a way to stop them since she thinks they killed her brotherRaul - and how he rises in power in the military due his obsession with the shifters after seeing one while out deer hunting and meets a young woman who will change his world and possibly the attitude toward the shiftersMelissa - how as a ten-year-old the seeds of hatred for her military father are already germinating and the shifters' discovery fuels her thirst for all things science which leads her to become a scientistHere much of the military are the bad guys along with the American president, the public acts like the people of 1938 upon hearing H. G. Wells' radio broadcast of War of the Worlds and the aliens actually do come in peace just wanting to share a little bit of the earth.I liked the story, especially since it has such unusual shifters and a good plot.