The Reaper Plague

Plague Wars #7

by David VanDyke

With a homicidal alien spacecraft inbound at high speed, Skull and Raphaela fly to meet it in a desperate bid to buy time for the Earth. In the meantime Brigadier Spooky Nguyen presses to build the world's first space battleship while Colonel Muzik and Master Sergeant Repeth fight a life-and-death battle to return civilization to the nuked and plague-ridden nation's capital.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Apocalyptic

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 16, 2012

About the author

David VanDyke is a former Army Airborne soldier and later, an Air Force officer. He lives in the Tucson area with his wife and three dogs. Look him up at davidvandykeauthor.com

Reviews

[David VanDyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was great, since I am the author.

More to the point, this books expands hugely on the character of Jill Repeth, now Master Sergeant, USMC as she returns to the newly reconstituted US to help bring government and civilization back to the Death Zones created by nuclear war and plague. She also gains and loses something of great value to her, setting up a tense storyline in the next book, The Orion Plague. Those of you who like a strong female warrior will appreciate the expansion of her role.

The other main threads include Skull and Raphaela as they journey out to the Watcher base on a distant comet, and have to deal with being cooped up with each other, while Spooky Nguyen schemes in Australia to both save the world and advance his political position.

As usual with my books, if you review one honestly here and on Amazon (regardless of rating) I'll send you a review copy of the next (or another) one for free.

-Dave

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting better

The series seems to improve as you go. This book shows the interpersonal relationships between various characters growing more complex. Unfortunately, this seems to come at the expense of following some players at all, or losing track of what each should be reacting to outside of the point of view character's direct experience. I'm sure this will improve further as read more of the series. On the other hand, I did enjoy the basic, single POV runamuck of book 1.

[Steve Pillinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow by now my enthusiasm for this series had run out, and I only got 12% through this book before putting it aside—meaning to come back to it, but I never did.

[Sush Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!

Another instalment of this series, which kept me just as interested as all th he previous books. About to start the next one. Can't wait.

[Sappho Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

FUN

[Julian White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published by Reaper Press for Kobo - ISBN 9781626260085

Plague Wars Book 7; Alien Invasion Two

The restored US government continues to reclaim its disputed territory, with the pardoned and reinstated Jill Repeth fully engaged in the fight. Elsewhere the Free Communities continue their research into the Plagues, Spooky improves the nanos in Australia - and Skull is on a trip to the Meme base in the company of the Blended Ilona...

The various threads of the ongoing plot are becoming clearer as the invasion threat increases. The series is as engaging as ever, with the added bonus of seeing the various main characters change and develop.

[Angela Goldsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things in the world are really heating up. The second alien plague has hit the Earth and decimated both "Normals" and Edens alike. Scientists in the Free Nations are struggling to find an antidote and extrapolate that to deal with plague number 3 nicknamed the "Reaper Plague" before it hits. The world has been warned that the Meme are coming by Raphaela (the blended Meme and Human)and that the world has less than a year to get ready to defend whoever is left after the plagues have hit. Countries have fallen apart under the weight of the plagues becoming stretches of animal-like former humans hit with the double degeneration of the combination of plagues one and two(twosies) and fortified towns full of people that are still okay or only slightly devolved with plague one(onesies). Hu-rah Repeth! You get to see this soldier in action as she tries to help the US secure it citizens from the infected and make everyone safe again.

As if plagues were not enough, the government has been playing with nanobots and come up with a formula to make super soldiers that are almost as good as Edens without the moral "problems", except that it makes some people extremely psychotic - even more than the Eden plague did. Now everyone has shared their nanobots, antidotes and tech trying to prepare for the coming battle but some people are preparing a few other plans on the side.

"Psychos" are secretly running Australia and who knows what else behind the scenes. Skull kidnapped Raphaela and stole her space ship to get out to the decaying Meme space station hoping to find a way to fight the coming Meme before they get to Earth. The trip to the space station is a long ride and a once hardened Skull seems to be softening up to Raphaela, but these once buried feelings towards another seem to terrify him more than facing the Meme armada. I found it amusing the way he and Raphaela fumble around their feelings neither human nor Meme/human hybrid seem to know what to do about it. What happens to potential romance between an hardened killer and a former alien blended with a woman that put life and love on hold? You'll have to read to find out -- and it is not resolved in this book to stay tuned for Volume 4!

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the author states this volume will be hard going without having read the previous ones in the series. I thought this was an exaggeration with the previous two but he is certainly right with this one. You are plunged straight into the story where you left off and will be wondering not only what Skull and Raphael are doing in an alien shuttle but even who they are.
There are two very separate themes running through this book, the shuttle which although important is a minor theme and the continuation of the aftermath of the conflict on earth and the attempts to rebuild things, with the threat of an alien attack/invasion in the background.
More than anything this volume develops the characters more particularly Jill Repeth who is developing as the main character. Skull who in the previous volumes was a very cold character is shown to have more feelings although unable to express them. As with the previous books the characters are brought to life and the action scenes make you think that you are actually there.
Although I liked this book it is certainly not one to read unless you have read the previous ones and are going to read the next as it is an intermediate volume with almost everything being continued into the next volume. I don’t know how many volumes this story is going to run to as there are 5 at least with volume 5 not yet published.

[John Grier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, the author has outdone himself! I find myself relating to the characters and feeling their pain more and more with each new edition in the series. The battle scene in Virginia was really close to home for me, reminescent of many of the battles of the war of the 1860's as well as taking place very close to my hometown, and is something I can certainly see happening in the situation he creates with this series of books. Hollywood, you should be talking to David VanDyke!

[Concetta Phillipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved delving into the detail of Jill Repeth, but I just lose my attention with all the details of the military operations. For someone who's into military fiction, I would highly recommend this book. For everyone else, it really depends on your attention level and whether you've read the other two books.

I'm ending my involvement with the series here, as I found this one hard to complete.