Jeffrey Debris's Reviews > The Lost Planet

It's the year 2094, the Earth is divided into two camps, the Alliance and Federation. Humanity has started to colonize Mars, and has a space station near Jupiter called Peacekeeper. When an alien fleet enters our solar system, they destroy the station.

Back on Earth, Tony Norman, a major with the Federation is tasked to communicate with the aliens, to see if they can be reasoned with. It soon becomes clear that these aliens look a lot like dinosaurs, and they have a reason for coming to Earth. Now the Federation not only faces a war with the Alliance, but another fight with aliens, who seem to possess technology far beyond our own developments.

The premise of the story is a war on two fronts, which causes the story to enter a roller-coaster ride kind of feel. A very "Hollywood"-style script, with all the right ingredients. I liked most of the story, but sadly, I couldn't help but feel that it was a bit too much sometimes. For instance, the Alliance threatens to attack the Federation, the aliens seem intent on destroying all life on Earth, but to top it off, all robots become self aware. Then there's also the fact that some of the things in the story just don't serve much of a purpose. Perhaps if those things would have been a bit more fleshed out, they would have fit into the story better. Now it just feels as if Fridsma added all these things because then at least she'd covered all science-fiction subjects.

I really liked the main storyline and the "dinosaur" characters. Their culture, and Empire was well developed in the story. Ilg, the alien commander was a nice character, who showed a lot of character development. He was torn between both worlds, which made him interesting. And the big question remained whether or not he should fulfil his mission he was being tasked with.

Overall I'm giving this book a solid 3-star review. I would have gone higher, but there's just a tad too much going on in the book for my personal taste. I would have appreciated a little more focus. Also, I found the level of English in this book a little bit lacking at times. I know Fridsma is Dutch, and my guess is that this story would come into its own more in that language. Still, if you like dinosaurs, science-fiction, and dystopian settings, I'm sure you'll have a great time with this book!