Review: Feline characters rule
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2014
Michael Hicks is a master of action as is evident with his multiple In Her Name series about the exploits of the woman-warrior race of Kreelans. His Harvest Trilogy started a little more cerebral with a concept about how genetically modified food could piggyback disaster. In this case, the genetic changes to grain encapsulated alien DNA that morphed into an all-out invasion of disgusting creatures that tore up human beings like they were stalks of wheat in the path of a massive combine. By Book 3, Reaping the Harvest, heroes Jack Dawson and Naomi Perrault reunite only to face the imminent destruction of all living things on the planet by the harvesters. She's a scientist. He's been recruited back into what's left of the military to try and keep her alive so they can develop a virus to exterminate the alien creatures. In a pace that's perhaps Hicks' most break-neck, the author throws everything at his characters. Death is at every turn. Nobody leaves unscathed. Even the cats. Great characters, by the way. Cats are the only way to sniff out harvesters, which can assume human identity by eating the heads of their prey. At times, the intensity was a little hard-core and the book became more apocalyptic than thriller. But it's classic Hicks and the ending makes me believe he isn't quite done with the series.