AUTHOR: JASON M. HOUGH
Pages: 524
Date: 09/09/2013
Grade: 4.5
Details: No. 2 The Dire Earth Cycle
Received from Titan Books
Through Nudge
Reviewed by Dermot Kennedy
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The mysterious
aliens known as the Builders have planted a new elevator in Belem, Brazil.
They have also left behind strange Black
Towers which seem to
nullify the SUBS virus. Skyler Luiken and the rebel Orbitals have started a new
colony but they soon fall foul of a new menace. Skyler also discovers a crashed
Builder ship and soon uncovers that the ship is altering the subhumans, making
them faster, stronger and meaner.
“Exodus
Towers” is the second
book from Hough and continues on the story begun in “The Darwin Elevator”. Skyler and the rebel Orbitals have created a
new colony in Belem but soon run into trouble with a sinister cult of immunes,
When the mysterious Black Towers suddenly up sticks and move off in different
directions of their own volition, Tania Sharma, leader of the rebel Orbitals,
knows instinctively that this is somehow linked with the next imminent Builder
event.
Meanwhile in Darwin,
Russell Blackfield has secured control of the remaining orbital habitats on the
Darwin elevator and enlists the services of
crime lord Grillo to restore law and order to the streets of Darwin. A decision he soon comes to regret …
I really liked this follow-up by Hough. The pace is
fast and the characters well developed and above all, likeable (even the bad
guys!). Even though this is a dystopian novel, the narrative never gets bogged
down in the misery inherent in such scenarios. In Skyler Luiken, we have an
anti-hero who reminds one of Mal Reynolds from Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” or Jaine
Fenn’s Jarek Reen. Luiken is part ships captain, part scavenger and part
likeable rogue. His no nonsense approach is nicely balanced by the analytical
almost dithery approach of the Tania Sharma character.
However, for me Russell Blackfield steals the show as
the quintessential bad guy. Blackfield just oozes nastiness, never has a good
word for anyone and as a result has no confidants. This last fact also shows up
his shortcomings and when he contracts Grillo to clean up Darwin he realises how out of his depth he
really is. Grillo on the other hand, is as methodical as he is ruthless and
quickly shows Blackfield how to really rule with an iron fist, and it doesn’t
take long for Grillo to show his true ambitions.
The suspense is maintained throughout by the
unfathomable agenda of the Builders, a race of aliens so technologically
advanced that they seem almost magical, even if we haven’t actually met these
mysterious beings yet. The fact that so much remains unknown about the Builders
only adds to the drama and leads one to ask whether all the machinations of the
human survivors will ultimately be in vain.
Jason M. Hough has created a rip roaring story that
never lets up on pace or wonder and has delivered one of the best debut science
fiction novels this reader has read in a long time. I look forward with relish
to the next instalment of this excellent story.
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