Review: Alien Invasion Part Two
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 26, 2013
One of the problems I had with the first book was the lack of a ground based war between U.S. troops and the aliens. Instead it went directly from aerial defense to resistance guerrilla fighting with no in between. This book explains that all the vehicles were captured as the bases were invaded directly after the collapse of the aerial defense. Unfortunately, this is a major flaw. The U.S. military had several (about 9) weeks advanced warning of the invasion and they had been working on planning a defense. IRL, those vehicles would have been deployed or destroyed once the ground invasion began. The military would not have left so much materiel laying about for alien use.As with the first book, the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book were a bit dry and didn't keep pacing at a brisk enough pace to really command a readers undivided attention. Additionally, a major plot line from book one (the area 52 and 53 research) was transferred to Britain for actual sciences and ignored the interrogation of the live prisoner except one short chapter and over a month of in book activity. This should have been focused upon with a great deal more zeal than it was.The last part of the book really centered around the resistance versus human collaborators when the resistance leaders should have been targeting the aliens and ignoring the humans. The one major technical advance that should have had more attention placed on it was left as a complete cliffhanger (BOOO). The last couple of chapters introduces you to the Fifth Column in the alien's forces ALA 1980s V. Very cliche and frankly a cop out. The aliens were portrayed earlier in the series as being incapable of taking the planet but are actually way more than enough to conquer the whole planet unaided. This fifth column is just too easy a way out of the corner the writer has maneuvered himself into.Overall, the book is a decent read but no great shakes. A definite step down from the first book of the series. Let's hope the third book is more to his style. :)