Book 25 Boundary Formation Alpha by Mike Adams
Book 25 Boundary Formation Alpha by Mike Adams
For the second book in a row, the humans are acting as if the war with the aliens over New Hope Colony is over even though there are more than a hundred thousand of the enemy still in the field. By the end of the book, it begins to look like that bit of overconfidence is going to really cost them in the final novel of the series. In the meantime, the humans, especially the young women of Jack’s Company, have two more conflicts—both minor in scale but important tactically—to engage in. That action, and the prep for that action is really important to keeping this novel going because there is also a lot of reminiscing and telling the tales of earlier books in this story. Telling those tales makes sense in the storyline, but as someone who has read and enjoyed the other twenty-four books in the series, it did seem like we were covering the same territory again and again.
All of that being said, two things really stood out to me in this novel. For the first time, thanks to intelligence gathered in the previous novel, the humans begin to really analyze the Rift aliens. They’ve been trying to do so based on their actions, but now, finally, we have the chance to peer into their culture and I found that very satisfying. The other thing that stood out is a small complaint. Mallory, a villain of earlier novels, is rehabilitated in this book and I thought it was a very rare breaking of character for Adams. Frankly, I have never understood how he keeps his cast of hundreds straight from novel to novel. It’s an impressive feat, and if you go back to look at the same characters in earlier books, they read true throughout the series—except for the self-absorbed bureaucrat from Winter Haven who got a man killed in an earlier novel and caused such trouble for the Jacks after they rescued her. I didn’t think—and still don’t think—she had it in her character to laugh at herself. She is too small, self-important, and mean. But that’s a very small complaint after twenty-five novels of first-rate characterization and adventure.
It looks like we have one more book. Serious human reinforcements are almost here which will effectively end the alien threat—but I predict they will be just a little too late to save the colony from the aliens’ last great push. That means that once again the Jacks and the Colonial Rangers are going to have to pull off a miracle to keep from being overrun. And as it’s right at the end, I think it’s a legitimate concern that Adams may kill off significant numbers of our heroines as he proved he was willing to do earlier in the series.
I can’t wait to read it.
