Well this is interesting. I simultaneously love and hate this book. Why love? Because the main character was well written – the way he reacted to the things that happened to him were believable, and well described, and I felt very invested in his character.
Why hate? At the end, THE STORY DIDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE. FORMER ENEMIES ARE NOW FRIENDS. AND FRIENDS ARE NOW ENEMIES (SOMETIMES). AND I DON’T REALLY UNDERSTAND THE MOTIVATIONS OF SEVERAL CHARACTERS.. And to be honest, a lot of the conflict at the end was a pure idiot plot – a plot that only occurred because everyone involved is an idiot. The problems created could have been solved with a simple conversation, but noooo, lots of people had to die instead.
So um, yeah, let’s dissect this book.
Choe
So, the positives – the protagonist, Joe, is very, very well written. If you read reviews about Sara King’s books, you’ll find this is common praise. She writes character driven books very well.
Her descriptions of how he tried to deal with his claustrophobia, of how he felt about taking his brother’s place in the draft, of how he felt about taking care of his groundteam – they were all wonderfully written. I was heavily invested in his growth. When he was anxious, I was anxious. When he was angry at something unjust happening to him, I was angry. When he was horrified about some of his friends getting killed (oftentimes in very gruesome or surprising ways), I was horrified.
His internal struggle about him being “the chosen one” to bring down Congress, and whether he wants it or not was interesting as well, albeit also a little frustrating. He starts off understandably very upset at Congress since they’re kidnapping every 5-12 year old on Earth and forcibly drafting them. Many of these kids end up dead, some in horrifying ways (getting eaten, getting shot in the head), so it’s easy to empathize why he would want to bring Congress down. While I personally don’t *really* understand how his feelings on this change through the story, it’s an interesting journey for him as the book goes on.
Idiot Plot (Things that don’t make sense)
So that all being said, I was very much enjoying this book right up until the last 10-20% of the book, where for me, shit fell off the rails and stopped making sense.
SO MANY QUESTIONS. NOBODY TO ASK. SO MUCH SHIT THAT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE.
Na’Aleen
So okay, there’s this guy, Na’Aleen. Up until now he’s very much acted like a bad guy. He’s one of the most powerful members of Congress, generally acts like a dick, and has been no friend to our protagonist, Joe. But wait, at the end, he’s leading the rebellion? How? What?
But okay, let’s just kind of go with it and assume he has his own reasons for hating Congress. (Btw, if everyone hates Congress, WHO LIKES IT AND WHY IS IT SO POWERFUL?!) In that case, why was he such a giant dick to Joe. He doesn’t ask for Joe’s help until he’s basically killed all of Joe’s friends. Yeah, that might disincent someone from helping you, especially that person who is supposed to…by himself…destroy Congress. You two probably have the same goals. When you first meet Joe, all he wants is to go home and he hates Congress. You could have just had a simple conversation with him and solved everything without murdering all his friends and turning him against you. Blah. Idiot plot.
Yuil and the Resistance
Speaking of Na’Aleen, so if he’s part of the resistance, then that means that anyone working under him is also part of the resistance. Which means that his assassin, the one who morphed into an Oorekei to hang out with Joe and try and sway him, works for him. Why not treat Joe better after knowing that Joe is trustworthy through this way? Why not clue him into the plan?
Nope, let’s definitely just wait until he kills several of our soldiers trying to break into a place *that we told him about*. And why did we tell him about it again? I don’t get it. NOTHING THE REBELS DO MAKES ANY SENSE. ALL YOU HAD TO DO IS TALK TO JOE.
Maggie
And okay, let’s talk about Maggie at the end, the only one of his ground team to survive. She’s been the 6 year old girl that he’s been protecting this entire time. Yeah, she’s artificially grown up now since the food they’ve been feeding the humans ages them to their prime more quickly, but she’s still basically his tiny little sister. And at the end, she hates him?
Idiot plot again. I get the misunderstanding that could happen – from her perspective, it looks like he didn’t help Libby and so got her killed. Then, weird aliens start shouting about how the prophecy says that Joe is the chosen one who will bring down Congress, and so she starts questioning his loyalty. Then, she freaks out and gets shot, presumably killed.
But since by a stroke of luck she’s alive, why doesn’t just GO TALK TO JOE afterwards instead of transferring from his ground team and hating him forever? Seems super stupid.
Alien fighting scale doesn’t stay constant
So let me get this straight. One Dasha can kill 8,000 Oorekei. One Oorekei is strong enough to probably kill 3-5 humans. The Jreet are the only species that can kill a Dasha one on one. But a Jreet can get killed by a human?
That shouldn’t be possible at all. They’re 40 feet tall and invisible, and based on the aforementioned power scale, it should take like 20,000 people to kill one Jreet since it would take about that many people to kill one Dasha.
But at the end, we’re mowing down Jreet like it’s going out of style. Invisible 40 foot reptile pteranodons and we’re killing them? What? How? Yes, lots of the kids are dying, but if the scale held true, ALL THE KIDS SHOULD BE DEAD. And the Jreet should be laughing.
Wait, I thought they were my friends/enemies?
Speaking of consistency, I can’t figure out who my friends are supposed to be or not. Khgil was my friend – he died because of some prophecy to save Joe*because he wants to bring down Congress*.
Nebil was his friend, and so I guess is Joe’s friend now? He treats Joe and his batallion very well, and is obviously the most competent battlemaster. He dies at the end PROTECTING CONGRESS???!!?! How in the…what? Shouldn’t we be on the same side as the resistance? Couldn’t we have just chatted and prevented this?
Tril has been an asshole this entire story to Joe the entire time. He keeps Joe from getting battlemaster for forever, is shown to be woefully incompetent at leading and seems to not care about getting his recruits killed for the sake of his pride. But at the end, he’s shown to be protecting Joe from people that want to arrest him? Kerswut?
NOTHING MAKES SENSE.
Conclusion
So yeah, I’m pretty frustrated. It’s not like the book was straight up bad. I was captivated, and very invested in the fate of Joe and his groundteam. So, great character writing there.
But the story goes so far off the rails at the end. And since I was expecting an awesome ending, I find myself extremely frustrated. NOTHING MAKES SENSE.
I’m very on the fence as to whether or not I’ll read the next book in the series. It looks like the story still centers around Joe (Zero), but 50 years into the future. I’m leaning no, but maybe I’ll calm down and give it a try. I’m already invested in this world anyway…? It took forever to learn all the different species names haha.
Two More Pages! 