Young-adult science fiction adventure

The story moves briskly, the plot twists sharply in a few places, and the author does an excellent job of presenting both sides of a future world that is occupied by / living in symbiosis with a more advanced alien race. I definitely plan on listening to the sequel! It's elegant storytelling that doesn't feel simplified.

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Exciting Story

Two sides of same view with offspring understanding both but paying a sad price but reaping rewards.

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Alien were not sure we love?❤

Great story. A lot of political storylines. You find yourself understanding both sides. So make a great novel to follow. Wish the romance was more involved. Great friendships and loyalty. Fun & adventure. Teen novel.

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Give me another one!

I usually dont listen much to books with aliens and stuff in it, but I love MacLeod and havnt listen to him in a long time, so EXO it was and wasnt I pleasantly suprised by this book.
Much of politics that was well explained and engaged you to understand why people did what they did, lot of cool action that made me chear or wince in symphaty. I mostly liked that the mc actually fell in love but Fonda Lee never took the fokus of the actual story to make it all about that like menny other books I have read.
Really hope there will be another one, want to know what happens to Earth ans the rebells.

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1 person found this helpful

Really good, not predictable

I really enjoyed this. Didn't know what to expect when I started, and I like that the story didn't take turns that I could predict. There were times I thought maybe certain things would happen, but the story kept surprising me. I couldn't even tell if it was a standalone or likely to be the first in a series until nearly the very end. I really liked that the author made the people (and aliens) on both sides of this conflict seem like good guys in their own ways. Or at least, even though the terrorists were actual terrorists, their reasons for their actions were understandable, and I could see how from a certain point of view, they were the good guys. I'm definitely interested to read more if there are sequels. (MacLeod Andrews does a fantastic job narrating, as always.)

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Wow - a pleasant surprise!

I started reading this book on the recommendation of a friend. I didn't expect much at first, and kind of rolled my eyes when I thought things were about to be set up for another predictable cliché, and then WHAM. Not only did this book steer away from the boring standard path, it took it in the best possible direction and gave me everything I wanted. I love the character depth, the story depth, the universe, and her writing style. I love that you can empathize with nearly all the characters, and the ones that you loathe you loathe with good reason (i.e. you don't have your standard mustache-twirling bad guys here, kids!) I already consumed the second book, and plan to add the rest of this author's works to my reading list. Thank you for a fantastic work of fiction that I will read over and over again :)

Also, thank you to MacLeod Andrews for another great performance!

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2 people found this helpful

A YA story with surprising depth

“You can’t roll an avalanche uphill”
I love it when a book surprises me. I was expecting a pulpy, alien occupation story with the standard coming of age MC whose unique gifts made him a cliche Mary Sue who single handedly save the planet. What I got was a whole lot more intergalactic politics and complex, understandable motivations on
all sides of a multi-sided game board. Human sympathizers and collaborators, alien partners and owners, all explored among a fascinating alien species and an inventive engineering of exo-celled humans.

“T.G.I.N.S. (Thank goodness I’m not squishy!)”
Yes, this was still YA, with minimal violence that kept to Hunger Games levels of gore. There were cliches, including a forbidden love interest and Donovan’s convenient connections to major events/people.
But, all in all, this managed to deliver some harder sci-fi topics and still keep the lighter YA vibe.
And, even though politics and terrorist themes aren’t normally my thing, I was captivated enough to immediately move on to book 2, Crossfire.

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Not For Me

To preface this, I only listened to a few hours of the book. I really don't know why people think this is some great philosophical delving into the nature of humanity with great plot twists and story progression. The examination of ethics and politics here is rudimentary at best (approximately the equivalent of that which can be found in a standard middle school government class).

The characters are boring, unlikable and repeatedly make stupid decisions. This book also boasts one of the worst crimes in all of story writing, which is weak characters that are full of unjustified bravado and belligerence, who never suffer any consequences. Apparently a lot of writers think belligerence makes a character strong and respectable. It doesn't. It makes them stupid and unrealistic. On top of that, all of the "twists" were not only extremely predictable, but were very cliche.

The terrorist group who you are supposed to sympathize with are basically a slightly futuristic iteration of a certain gun toting bipartisan group that exists today, that is also xenophobic and obsessed with freedom at all costs. Mind you, gaining freedom in this story is going to cost humanity very dearly if it doesn't cause their destruction outright, as well as lose them access to vastly superior technology and leave them vulnerable to even worse enemies. That's not patriotic, that's idiotic. Finally, when one of the main characters started prattling on about God's will, I knew it was time to throw in the towel.

The only good thing about this book is the narrator. This is the second time I've encountered Macleod Andrews work. The first time was in Brandon Sanderson's The Reckoners series (which I also hated for all of it's ridiculous in your face morality and hypocritical characters) and he did a good job there as well.

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