Review: Alienation by Jon S. Lewis

Alienation

Author: Jon S. Lewis
Series: CHAOS, Book Two
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Release Date: January 3, 2012
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Earth's last line of defense against the coming alien invasion is 16-year-old surfer Colt McAlister.

But before he can save the world, he has to survive the day.

All Colt wants to do is return to his old life . . . where aliens don't exist . . . where mankind hasn't been targeted for destruction . . . and where his parents are still alive. Unfortunately life doesn't work that way.

The United States government believes Colt holds the key to our survival, so they're sending him to the CHAOS Military Academy along with his best friends Oz and Danielle. There they'll be trained to defend Earth against a swarm of alien shape shifters known as the Thule. But someone is trying to eliminate Colt before he can lead that charge. Shocked to learn about key events in his past and unsure who he can trust, he is alienated and on the run.

In a world of high-tech gear, shape-shifting aliens, simulated reality, and hover boards, Colt must step into his true destiny before our world falls into chaos.

"Non-stop, action-packed thrills and excitement made it impossible to put down . . . [a] cliffhanger that left me wanting more." --SciFiChick.com

My Review:

I really liked the first book in this series, Invasion, so I was looking forward to reading this one. But I was kind of disappointed. It was okay. There was a ton of action just like the first book, but I had a hard time believing certain things and connecting with the characters.

For Colt, it’s one thing after another. Every time it seems like he is out of the woods, something else happens. This poor kid cannot catch a break. However, there were parts that I thought were just too easy. Like the solutions to his problems were a little too convenient, you know what I mean? Throughout this book, Colt begrudgingly begins to embrace his destiny. He discovers secrets that have been kept hidden from him his whole life and must decide whether or not to hold onto his anger over it or put it aside and face what’s coming next. His character is enjoyable, though not loveable. I didn’t fall in love with who he is or what he was trying to do. In the first book, his love interest is Lily, a girl he goes to high school with. In this book, he is transferring to the CHAOS military academy so he basically just completely stops talking to her. She was in one scene at the very beginning, but then she is just a memory. I didn’t like this aspect. It made me feel as if her character had served no purpose in the first book or the small role she played in this one and was just there so that Colt could have a crush on someone.

Oz is still a fun character and I would have to say that he is my favorite, the one that I connected with the most. He is serious and funny at the same time. Colt and Oz’s friendship hits a speed bump in this book. If I had been in Oz’s position, I would have been angry with Colt. However, Oz seems to kind of just ignore the conflict and doesn’t really get upset at all. They go a few days without talking to each other and then it’s like nothing ever happened. It just wasn’t real to me. This isn’t how humans interact with each other and I felt like more should have happened between the two.

Danielle is a great character. She is extremely intelligent. I didn’t understand how she magically got an invitation to go to the CHAOS military academy though. Both Oz and Colt had to go to a sort of prescreening day in the first book to even be considered for an invite, but then Danielle just magically gets an invitation in the mail. Once again, seemed unrealistic. In addition, in the first book, she and Oz have somewhat of a romantic relationship going on and that seemed to just completely disappear in this book. What? How do they have feelings for each other one day and the next just completely turn it off? This is really nitpicky of me, but another thing that bugged me was that in the first book, Colt refers to Danielle by a nickname, Dani, and in this book he calls her Danielle the entire time. They have known each other since they were little kids and I just did not understand what would make him start using her full name randomly.

Our antagonist in this book is Krone, a Thule (evil aliens that want to take over the world) villain. He was a great villain and quite honestly, I enjoyed his character the most this time around. He is dark, mysterious and extremely dangerous. There were holes in his character as well though. Let’s just say he’s really good at what he does according to his past history, but then fails multiple times on his current assignment. That’s all I’ll say, don’t want to give away any spoilers.

Overall, this book was okay. There was a lot of action that kept me interested enough to continue to turn the pages. My biggest complaint was the characters. There were so many holes in their personalities and relationships with each other that just bugged me throughout the entire book. Because of this, I had a hard time connecting with any of them. The ending is kind of a cliffhanger, but I feel so passive about this book that I’m not dying to read the next one. I’ll probably pick it up eventually just to see how the series ends, but I’m certainly not losing sleep over wondering what is going to happen next. I hope in the final book, Domination, we connect with the characters more. Happy reading all!