Trust by David Moody

☆☆☆☆This review contains spoilers☆☆☆☆

The story, created by David Moody, compares to a train moving away from a station platform. At first, a person could run alongside the track easily, though as the train speeds up, there comes a moment that the runner anticipates the futility of persevering, and as the cars rush forward, the person inevitably slows down, or at the last moment a decision emerges to jump on for the ride.
I was that runner, easily bored at the beginning of the book--my mind outracing the slowness of the words, but approaching the finish line, my every thought fixated on this speeding target, and the ride arrived in a blur of insanity.

The destruction of mankind achieved by the resolute desire of alien's to take over our beautiful planet isn't an original concept. The total annihilation of the human race asserts an expectation both implausible and infuriatingly frightening--how can one's mind begin to perceive the idea of humans never existing again on our planet, the Milky Way Galaxy or the known universe?

In our seeking of amusement, the question we must ask ourselves--how does our story play out? Would a realistic ending achieve the favored results, or a breathtaking climax featuring humans kicking ET's butt, as in the movie Independence Day or Wells theory that humans commit to remaining alive until an earthly virus attacks the invaders, and abruptly we're impervious to their onslaught? This leaves us finishing a book or movie perceiving humans as invincible and pitying those fools from space who think they could win a war with us.

The probable truth tells a diverse story of alien victory. They possess the technology to travel copious light years (one can travel six trillion miles at the speed of light in one year) to commence their battle, and earth owns a space station and a few exhausted space shuttles providing meager protection.

The intelligence of invading aliens would eclipse the beings in Signs (one of my favorite movies) who can't open doors, traveled a prodigious distance while forgetting to bring along catastrophic weapons to kill the pesky humans and arrived on a planet that's seventy percent water which contains their deadly kryptonite. Just as the witch said in The Wizard Of Oz, "it burns, oh how it burns," the aliens knew of what she spoke of.

Unfortunately, they could produce a hostile takeover without excessive effort on their part, in the same manner the aliens in Trust conquer earth. The brilliantly planned strategy never had a chance of failure, since the adjustment of the human brain proved quite effortless.

When Tom confronts the alien, whom his brother called a friend, he asserts, "we aren't going to relinquish the earth easily." The alien proclaims, "look around Tom, we've already taken over," he spoke the truth, but the sad earthling wasn't equipped to comprehend the reality.
The alien explains that people are guilty of committing the same actions as the ones wrestling away the human's grasp of our world. Throughout history, people with power attain land through their might, uncaring of the rightful inhabitants.
His alien sensibility hasn't an ounce of empathy concerning the fate of humans, and even though it's a drop of water in a universe of oceans, I'm happy that Tom killed him.

Greed in aliens and humans surface abundantly, and the number one rule of the universe--if you're in possession of a substantial commodity, then quite possibly someone bigger and stronger will eventually attain it for themselves

I experienced two problems with Trust--one is the sexual content, which in this age of sex tortured to the point of wanting its mommy, implies that innumerous readers will consider it quite mild.
The second shows my complete lack of self-control, as I had trouble turning my Kindle off, and finished in the wee hours. Subsequently, my mind became a whirlwind of alien thoughts, which finally faded as sleep approached.

David Moody has developed into one of my favorite writers. His book Autumn revealed an amazing truth--I could love zombies, and my fear of Night of the Living Dead proved a terror of the past and vanquished from the present.
Though Trust isn't my favorite by Moody, my thoughts surrounded it for days, and that is a mark of a great book.

The Darkness by W.J. Lundy

☆☆☆☆This review contains spoilers☆☆☆☆

Running, running, running, running, sprinkled with finite altercations against zombie aliens, could sum up the entire book, and complete my review.

I wanted to love this book, all the elements are in place to create a forceful story, aliens who find a way to "zombiefy" humans, and force them fight against us, a man desperately looking for his family and the human will to fight against all odds, yet there's a missing factor composing any enthusiasm for their welfare.

Jacob falls in with a small group of soldiers and civilians trying to reach safety, while trying to stay alive, and that's when the running comes into play. I would correctly surmise this book to be 80% running to and from danger, and 15% fighting and dabs of worry for his wife and child.

There isn't a cohesive bond present that guides the book into an acceptable story. The characters in Jurassic Park move about constantly, but the story emerged perfectly written, without boredom permeating the hours spent lost in the world of dinosaurs. In fact, we want the characters to succeed in Crichton's books, yet I found myself not caring if Jacob fell to the enemy. If a defection to the dark side had occurred, my interest would have peaked substantially.

The lowest depth, the book achieves, occurs during the reuniting with his family. Tears, happiness, and joyful words, would not appear amiss, in his reaction on perceiving his family, in his hospital bed.
The aloof reaction he portrayed emanated milk warm at best, and bordered on a greeting to a mere acquaintance, and not a beloved family member. 

I yearned for the hospital scene to be a farce in which two possible outcomes could transpire:
(1) He concludes his family and hospital workers are actually alien zombies, controlled by the aliens. The use of subterfuge, by the infiltrators, to discover military's plans of defense would be brilliant.
(2) His family's happiness turns to horror when they discover he's an alien zombie. Their loathing turns into panic, when he systematically destroys every human in the room.

Instead, the book ends with a soldier informing him that it's time to join the military "for reals." This implies the second book will also contain running and fighting, which brings about my decision to quit at the first book and not proceed further in the series. 

A Path to Utopia by Jacqueline Druga

👽Spoiler Alert👽

Oh, dystopian books, how I love you, and Jacqueline Druga is my go to dystopian dealer to feed my need for this genre in my life.

Druga resides in the realm amid my favorite authors, though occasionally there exists a modest dissatisfaction displayed in her writing--her characters may emit the feelings of meeting old friends, then the realization occurs--they may be a rehash of recycled individuals.
A Path To Utopia features Robi, a clone of Brett in Torn who's a clone of  Ellen in Beginnings. Druga should abandon this blueprint, and start over fresh--possibly the correct answer is quality instead of quantity.
Though there's one aspect I admire in her female characters--they posses strength, they fight hard and they never surrender to failure. In a disaster, I'd happily join their team to struggle through each hazardous day with them.

Twenty-five percent of the population survives a worldwide catastrophic event, in which the majority of people die, collapsing to the ground, leaving the survivors alone with their fears.
The concept of standing amid a dead populated planet isn't an original idea, though usually the populace finishes an illness to produce the same result as in The Stand by Stephen King. Autumn by David Moody also has the majority of the world drop to their deaths simultaneously, though they eventually rise as zombies. However it happens, the fear would intensify with the supplemented horrors of evil, zombies or aliens, pushing the sanest person to lunacy.

It's amusing to watch the progress of the characters, the clueless creatures struggling to detect the truth. We (the reader) initially perceived the accuracy of the story--patience is required while waiting for their eureka moment.
The same formula happens in horror movies, when a young woman decides to walk up the stairs (or a room, house or the woods) alone. The audience grasps the truth of imminent death, though the women are so young, so innocent and shortly so dead.
Obviously, aliens attacked the earth, yet our group believes it's world war III, though one person, an elderly doctor they travel with, has ascertained the truth. When they realize he's not senile, he relishes his "I told you so" moment.
Mas and Sam, are two unequaled beings in our diminutive group, who can create walkies out of baby jar lids, yet display extreme excitement for a trip to a mall. They're beings from a world that isn't our own, though they wish to assist in our fight. The Calvary travels from their planet to ours, though they will not arrive for one Earth year.

It's my belief that all stories may be enhanced with a few zombies thrown in, though it didn't fit in the story line, Druga threw in a scene with a mob of walkers which created a warm and fuzzy feeling inside my heart.
All in all, a satisfying book, though distinct components appear crude, rehashed, and predictable, I loved it, and recommend it to all dystopian lovers.

Cry by Jacqueline Druga

☆☆☆☆This review contains spoilers☆☆☆☆

Outer Limits meets War Of The Worlds meets The Twilight Zone in this novel of alien suspense.This book has elements of all three--Outer Limits for gore, War Of The Worlds for alien terra-forming the earth and Twilight Zone for the surprise finale.

In War Of The Worlds, it's the germy atmosphere that killed the aliens--human patience would be our greatest quality while waiting for the microbes to perform their job. In Day Of The Triffids, salt water killed the evil, poison plants, though plain water accomplished the trick in Signs. Numerous times exceptional old fashion warfare provides optimal results, though frequently we lose.

The people in Cry don't have a magic solution against the invaders, though they're able to find something the aliens avoid and that's liquor.
This makes a pleasant day for alcoholics! Drink and earn a pass over on one of the alien's drive by searches, stay sober and turn into a disgusting blob.

If aliens destroyed our world by terra-forming and changed the entire ecosystem where the world is imperceptible to humans  and there isn't a large amount of oxygen left for the few survivors--extreme sadness would permeate all humans. Then to find out that the aliens turned our bodies into a bloody mess to fertilize their plants--extreme agonizing anger would infuse our souls as we helplessly watched from hiding places.

The ending arranged a cruel shock for me as I held out hope the aliens demonstrated feelings of remorse. They started taking humans instead of killing them, and I hoped they'd realized too late we're sentient beings.
Correcting their mistake would establish a habitat where humanity could hope to augment an appearance of accustomed existence.
Yes, we would be in a large see-through dome, and yes the aliens would watch us from platforms....wait a minute, I observed this same set up at the zoo in a large gorilla habitat.

Parts of this book are slow and disjointed, occasionally copious amounts of  info appear that we don't need, and regularly there's not enough. I still highly recommend the book--since it took a lengthy amount of time for the entire story to become clear.
You may hear the Leave It To Beaver theme song in your mind while reading the end.

Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr.

From the moment I commenced reading this story, memories of another story stirred around in my brain.
Men living on a base in Antarctica and a being so evil that it can duplicate itself into any existing living cell structures.
Voila, I knew it appeared similar to the movie called The Thing, which is a terrifyingly wonderful movie starring Kurt Russel. In fact, the movie's based on the book.

Who Goes There was published in 1938. That boggles the mind to understand the mind of the man who had the intelligence to write such a brilliant book. Reading it today, I felt the concepts were way before their time in the same manner of Jules Verne or H. G. Wells. The story showed such insight that a movie made fifty years later would thrill audiences with anxiety filled horror.

Even though I liked the book, this is one of those instances where the film is superior. The book had several of the same elements, yet the movie took those elements to a higher playing field and added a fresh new story line causing more terror filled moments.

To be stuck in Antarctica with the "being" on the loose would be terrifying, and never knowing if a friend is still a human, would be agonizing. Plus they're in Antarctica with no place to run. The weather outside shows 40 below--until aid arrives, there's no place to hide.
There's also the added fear of spreading the evil off the base and into the world.

I still feel that feeling of wonderful creepiness rolling off my shoulders.

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress

May contain spoilers.
The worst element of Aliens landing on our Earth would be their intent of good or evil. Not everyone views good and evil as absolute, and in the beginning, the intentions of the aliens in this book are difficult to decipher.
The aliens, that land on our world, aren't complete strangers--they are part of our ancestors that somehow broke off and moved to a distant planet far, far away.
They tell a tale of a spore cloud coming our way within one Earth year, and will hit their planet within twenty-five years. The spores are deadly to the aliens and subsequently deadly to humans.
The aliens set up labs with all the top scientist of the world to find a cure for humans and the quasi-humans also.
One aspect of the story that I consider appealing portrays the primary character who's a middle-aged woman. She's a scientist at a leading university with three grown children. She doesn't have a man and doesn't seem to be looking for one. She threw out her alcoholic husband years earlier, and she concentrates on her work and occasionally her grown children.
Books rarely show a woman, moving up in years, worth anyone's scrutiny in this age of youth and beauty, so this is an immense credit to the writer.
As time moves on she becomes depressed when thinking back on the mother that worked too much, and the mother that couldn't find the secret formula to give her children what they needed.
As the book moves on, her regrets become  perceptible, which leads her down the path of anger, bitterness and regret. I recognize this woman since I have felt these same feelings towards my children, and I've spent copious amounts of sleepless nights contemplating my own maternal defects.
I wish in the end that she lost her frustratingly fatalistic perspective, and after learning a large percentage of the population on our planet will live, including her other two children and grandchild (left on earth), that she would have grasped onto happiness for the human race. Maybe, as time moves on and the pain of her loss diminishes, she will find the ample hope that she needs in her life.