RETRIBUTION

Humanity continues to struggle against the invaders introduced in Earthfall (2013) while facing new threats and revelations.

Sam, one of the few humans immune to Voidborn mind control, hasn’t made much progress since capturing the Mothership above London. The mind-controlled Sleepers aren’t any closer to freedom, and the small resistance isn’t any closer to global action. When they intercept a transmission, they embark on a mission to find fellow free humans. Instead, they find monstrous, humanoid creatures. All escape except for Sam, who, presumed dead, narrowly survives with the help of a girl who has partially become one of those creatures, called the Vore, but retained her humanity. Sam and Mag find the other humans, a paramilitary band with ties to the initial resistance—but not all’s what it seems. The Voidborn and humans aren’t the only species in the universe. Walden does a good job at juggling the foreshadowed plot twists with ones that truly come out of nowhere, keeping readers on their toes. The dialogue frequently reaches levels of so-good-it’s-bad B-movie schlock quality. Intense action sequences keep the plot moving quickly to an extended expository scene; from there it proceeds to a series of conflicts that build to an adrenaline-inducing, video-game–style final boss fight and an end-credits teaser for the next adversary—this is a trilogy’s middle volume, after all.

Plot twists, action, and explosions galore; it might as well be a movie.