Shadow on the Sun

Hell's Cross #3

by David Macinnis Gill

A sci-fi thrill ride—incredible action, inventive world-building, deadly humor, and more—for fans of movie classics such as Blade Runner and Mad Max ! This is the companion to Invisible Sun and Black Hole Sun , which Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games , called "imaginative and action-packed." Characters return, new characters are introduced, and the action never stops. Readers embraced the first two books in acclaimed author David Macinnis Gill's trilogy about Durango, Mimi (his nano-implant with a biting wit), and Vienne (his second-in-command), calling the books non-put-downable, thrilling, funny, and totally satisfying. A surefire bet for fans of dystopian sci-fi, from The Hunger Games to Battlestar Galactica . Cinematic action, rapid-fire dialogue, a futuristic setting on a terraformed Mars, and tragic romance— Shadow on the Sun is an unstoppable adrenaline rush!

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Teen

432 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2013

About the author

David Macinnis Gill is the author of the award-winning novels Black Hole Sun and Soul Enchilada, both from Greenwillow/Harper Collins. His short stories have appeared in several magazines, including The Crescent Review and Writer’s Forum. His critical biography of young adult author Graham Salisbury, Graham Salisbury: Island Boy, was published by Scarecrow Press. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English/creative writing and a doctorate in education, both from the University of Tennessee.

He is the Past-President of ALAN (The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents) and an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His non-fiction, book reviews, essays, and academic work have appeared in a variety of publications, including The English Journal, Teacher-Librarian, and many others.

David’s teaching career began in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he was a high school teacher at Brainerd High School and briefly at the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences. He later joined the English Department at Ohio University as an assistant professor. Currently, he is an associate professor of English education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

David has been a house painter, cafeteria manager, bookstore schleper, high school teacher, and college professor. He now lives on the Carolina coast with his family, plus fourteen fish, two rescued dogs--an airebeagle and a border setter--and a nocturnal marsupial.

Reviews

[Daniel Shellenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't reviewed any of this series yet, although this is the final volume, so I'll just say that the series as a whole plays like a cross between Red Faction (in its setting: a post-colonized Mars that's not fully terraformed and a total political dystopia) and Seven Samurai (in its plot, especially in the first book: a group of outcast warriors protecting a group of penniless miners) with some Mad Max (and half a dozen video games, starting with Crysis (symbiotic armor) and Halo (AI companion character)) thrown in for good measure. As far as teen science fiction goes, the Hell's Cross books are entertaining and action-packed with a fairly likeable main character (though not particularly novel, as he's your basic teen super-soldier on the run from a tyrannical despot father) and some decent (though trite) world-building. These books don't really take many chances in terms of plot twists, but they tell a well-worn story in a way that is fun. On the other hand, this book is told in continuous tense, which I despise (see my review of Ember in the Ashes), yet I gave it 4/5 stars whereas I gave that one 3/5. The difference is largely that this time I wasn't gagging down an interlocked pair of romantic triangles as Gill focuses on a single romantic angle to his story and develops it fairly slowly throughout the series with what I felt was a decent payoff without the usual overabundance of hormone fueled sappiness. Having said that, I would still prefer to give this 7/10 stars as (as noted before) it is really nothing particularly special in terms of ideas, setting, storyline, or characters and the bloody continuous tense, but for all its lack of bringing anything new to the table, it still manages to be an entertaining and competently told series and despite taking several years between books 1/2 and 3, I was able to pick up the story easily and quickly remembered most of the pertinent character/story information (an advantage of not being particularly novel, I suppose). So if you're looking for some action-heavy teen science fiction that's not too "think-y" this series is worth a read.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Shadow on the Sun" is a fast-paced, heart-stopping science fiction novel that opens in Fisher 4 where Sturmnacht troops have been deployed to overrun the mines. Fuse, a former Regulator is forced to hide his pregnant wife and her mother while he goes for help.

The story then shifts to Christchurch where Vienne a disgraced Regulator recuperating from life threatening wounds is seeking penance in service to a monastery while she waits for her partner Durango to return. She doesn't know that he's been captured and tortured by his tyrannical father General Lyme. Experimenting on his son the General has duplicated the AI (artificial intelligence) flash-cloned to Durango's brain and has called it Dolly. With this latest weapon he will stop at nothing to gain dominance in the war, even to sacrificing the son who despises him. Can Durango deter this maniac from his plans which could mean the destruction of the planet?

The action in this well-written plot never stops, its energy only lightened by the wit and humour of Durango's interaction with Mimi, the sarcastic AI who has begun to show signs of self-sufficiency. Into this creative and riveting story the writer has infused imaginative weaponry like the armalite, the Crucible and symbiarmour (indestructible body armour).

The core characters are well-developed, and realistic with their multi-dimensional personalities; like Durango, the former Regulator Chief who's tough, brave and sometimes cocky as well as Vienne, a woman haunted by the past who's pragmatic and blunt-spoken, masking a tender heart. Mimi, the AI is amusing with her droll and clever wisecracks. The brothers Khoumanov with their good-natured insensitivity, determination and loyalty are as entertaining as Mimi. But, it's the villains in the story with their brutal selfishness, hunger for power, viciousness and cruelty that make the reader shudder. All the characters add intensity and strength to a captivating plot.

I have read all the books in this science fiction series and have enjoyed everyone, especially "Shadow on the Sun."

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Durango and Vienne are separated and neither is sure where the other one is. Durango is being chemically manipulated by his father, the tyrannical leader of Mars using the name General Lyme. Vienne is wandering around, eventually returning to the monastery with refugee children when she is recruited to assist in a rescue mission. Mimi, Durango's AI conscience, keeps being shut down, but Lyme has succeeded in creating his own version Dolly, who is helping guide Lyme's war to preserve his dictatorship. The computer code battle between Mimi and Dolly is a fun part of the book. Eventually, Vienne and her Russian mercenary friends and Durango cross paths in the mines trying to rescue an old friend, Fuse, who is doing his part to seed the recovery of the dying planet.

[Afifah Liyana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book! To smithereens! The series gets darker as it progresses..There is amazing character development, amazing storyline, amazing action; frankly, everything is AMAZING!

I get to meet Durango’s father, which is surprising..mostly due to the fact that i thought he was dead somewhere in the second book..and a few new characters..the conclusion is action-packed, watch out for it!

There is one micro-complaint i have about the lack of feelings..Durango should feel something about how much his father hates him (or does not see him as human), but I don’t find that here..There is something about it in the first book but i think it should be more accentuated here..If Durango expresses his feelings more often & more deeply, I believe he can be even more relatable..(although who can relate with an AI-implanted cyborg soldier?) Well, at least relatable as a teen boy then..

Amazing job, David!

[Gisele Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the series. Loved the humour threaded throughout. it's what kept me reading. it taught me the power of humour to keep a reader coming back.

[amandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of the trilogy although Mimi was entertaining.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacre merde! Durango is in the clutches of General Lyme. Daddy has his cyborg experimental soldier/Son under control and ready to do his bidding. If that isn't enough, Mimi has been cloned to control the General's forces all over the planet, and his Sturmnacht are hard at work terrorizing and enslaving. From his power center in the heights of Olympus Mons ===

Here I must digress, for Father and Son Stringfellow are not quite Chronos and Zeus, and this titanic struggle can't be given a one to one mapping onto any Greek myths, despite all the temptation to do so. David Macinnis Gill has woven a mythic tale for a new age, plopped it on Mars, breathed life into it and called it a series of YA books. Former Regulators, disgraced by dishonor, Vienne and Durango stand on their own as strong characters torn by circumstance from one another and cast to accomplish great and terrible deeds while thwarting the the evils surrounding them.

And Mimi, the digital download of a female warrior resides within Jacob, taunting, protecting and yearning.

====

It is enough that I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure. Professor Gill is a story teller who understands the intelligent lad, the geek who is adventure bound in his soul to find a good way to live and bash his way out of the shell (sorry about that). If this book inspires a single young person to examine alternate operating systems and gain the secret of the code for themselves--there may be hope for us all that the future will belong to us instead of them.

Oh, the kids will also enjoy learning new words in French and a few other languages.

[Fresh C · Rating 4 out of 5]

+ more action, still doesn't get boring (couldn't lay it down and read it in one night)
+ better than the last part
+ Mimi (by far my favourite)
+ We see some old characters again


- the climax was reached in the last few pages, only a little more than one page dedicated to the "aftermath"... You actually have no idea about the consequences and it feels like a lot of questions remain unanswered (as if the other didn't have time/space/motivation left to tie up some lose ends)
- seems like he didn't know what to do with some of the "plot points" he introduced so just gave up on them
- there are about 5+ chapters where the ANNOS MARIS dating was screwed up. Didn't anyone check these before releasing the book?
- inconvenience? Make up a character we've never heard of before but has always been there (and we can't really care about) just to kill him/her in order to avoid and get rid of plotholes


***SPOILER ALERT***
+ Letting it play out at the same location the book series "started" nicely tied everything together.

- Dolly wasn't nearly as intimidating as she ought to be. They got rid of her far too easily imho.
- What happened to the monastery and the monks? We will never know.


Overall I liked the book and recommend it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book late last night so please near with me as I assemble my thoughts. According to the author, this is the final book with Durango and that's okay because pretty much everything is wrapped up in this book. The book was ok that's why I'm giving it a three star review.

As a computer guy I was a little put off by the chapters of pseudo code. In the future will people really be using perl to write AI programs on a windows derivative? I would assume it would be LISP or Forth or who knows but technical details aside, I feel like it didn't really help the book. I would have preferred an abstracted description, illustrations or perhaps an explanation.

I wish there was more build up between Mohindra and Zealand Corps. I feel like Mohindra only existed as a convenient name for these people the Sturmnacht are fighting. Also I have issue with the HVT mcguffin as if Lyme would be foolish to think that such an important bit of the super weapon could so easily fall into his hands. Just how does he think the crucible works? And why is he mining guanite? For someone with a big elaborate plan to take over Mars he doesn't seem to have an end plan.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Shadow on the Sun" by David Macinnis Gill is a Goodread's Giveaway First-Reads. Even though it is the third book in the Hell's Cross series, it stands on it's own very well. I didn't get the opportunity to read the first two stories, but had no trouble following the story in this novel. It is about Durango (who has a computerized download of his former squad leader, Mimi, in his consciousness), searching for the squad's second-in-command and his love interest, Vienne. Durango's father, Lyme (like the evil Darth Vader if Durange were Luke Skywalker), is the total nemesis in the tale, no redeeming qualities. I wonder if the fact that his name rhymes with "slime" was intentional! Anyways from page 1, the reader is dropped right into the midst of action, immersed in it, and not let out until page 424 which is the end of the book. I kept picturing the entire novel as a action packed young Bruce Willis movie. The action is like the energizer bunny; it never stops. Fantastic! If you like action, this is the book for you. It would translate into a good movie as well!

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 warm & gooey chocolate chip cookies.

Cover Love:
This cover tells a lot of the story. I don't really love how Vienne looks, but it fits the other covers in the series. Plus I love how Durango looks!

Why I Wanted to Read This:
I read and adored the other two books in this series and really wanted to know how it ended!

Romance?: They are separated for most of the books but there is a lot of longing for each other between Vienne and Durango.

My Thoughts:
Shadow on the Sun was a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy that started with Black Hole Sun and continued in Invisible Sun. You have to know my love for Durango (and Mimi) is immense! He is smart, very loyal, tough, kind, super good looking and tries whatever he can to solve problems. He is the whole package!

Read the full text of this review on my blog.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most purely plot-driven action-adventures I've ever read. The downside is that the characters are static, unchanging and typecast (particularly the bad guys)---but wow, in compensation you get a breathlessly paced tale chock full of violence, explosions, gunfire, butt-kicking and general mayhem leading to a climax that packs in even more. I think that the humorous elements--particularly the Three Stooges style mercenaries self-dubbed the Koumanov Brothers, and the interchanges between Durango and his snarky AI Mimi (reminiscent of the less relentless banter between Jon and and his intelligent flying tank Lobo in Peter Van Name's similar series) come off as a little forced, but I appreciate the effort to add funny parts---very few authors of stories like this even try. A wild ride, and a fitting conclusion to the trilogy.

[Barbara ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my least favorite in the series. Durango and Vienne spend almost the entire book apart and not even searching for each other. They stumble upon each other within the last 50 pages or so and then the story is over. Strange.

Six months have passed since the events of the last book. Durango is being held prisoner by his father and basically tortured and Vienne is back at the Monastery after escaping from her own hell.
Vienne takes a mercenary job to help free slaves in the mine at Hell's Cross and Durango is given a hint as to where Vienne is and follows the tip.

For most of the book I was bored and all that computer-gobble-de-gook was a waste of pages and most people won't be able to figure out WTH was going on. Even I, with a computer degree, only came away with hints of what was going on.

[Brian Muldowney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received "Shadow on the Sun" as a Goodread's Giveaway. I have not read the previous two books in the series but I had no trouble following the story. It was a classic good vs evil story line with plenty of action and good parallel plot-line.

I thought it was a quick read, hard to put down once I got into it. It usually take me 50-100 pages to get into a book. This was no different. He did a good job with character development even though this was the third book in the series - I was able to identify with the characters.

Overall, I enjoyed it and would like to read the first two books in the series.

[P.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jacob Stringfellow, a.k.a. Durango, has been captured by his father who wants to turn him into a mindless super soldier. Meanwhile Vienne is back at her monastery doing penance for all the things she feels needed redemption. Durango shakes off his shackles and steals a secret weapon and Vienne takes a job as a mercenary. Both converge on the mines at Hell's Cross where the final battle will be fought. This book was all right. The chapters with all the computerspeak went right over my head. I guess I'll need to study programming to make any sense of those. I did like Vienne as a strong female who was more than able to hold her own in a man's world.

[C.O. Bonham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shadow on the sun is the final book in the Hell's Cross series by David Macinnis Gill.

The opening of this novel finds our heroes in pretty hopeless situations.

But through perseverance, luck and shear kick buttery . . . they manage to make their situations even worse.

This story was so amazing. For fear of going on and on and dropping major spoilers, I'm not saying anything else. Except I wish there was another one.

[Karen Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had a hard time imaging everything because so much was going on, but I think it was because I was reading too fast. Also I barely recalled the previous books.... But I love the banter between Durango and everyone else, as I always have :D plus I know more swears in other languages, which I pretty awesome. I'll definitely read more of author's work!

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Until about 100 pages from the end, I would have given it four stars, but even with the pace, it started getting a little tedious to me and I started to skim a bit.

But really, the best thing about this book was Mimi. Though there was something that happened toward the end that I didn't completely understand.

[Lianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the three, probably because Durango and Vienne are separated throughout most of the book. And why were so many new characters introduced so close to the end of the series? Will they be included in something new?

The ending was a little abrupt, but that is in keeping with the roller coaster nature of this series.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is Hunger Games with a sense of humor. As the last book in the series, Shadow on the Sun continues the break-neck action established in the first two novels. Gill creates interest, tension, and action in this SF set on a future Mars, and he manages to work in clever dialogue and humor.

[Maggie V · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great finish to the series. I enjoyed the alternate points of view and bringing everything together. The end felt a little like a video game only in that the fights and the bad guys increased in strength and weaponry (like how you have to fight the little monsters to get to the big baddie or Boss). However, it was fun.

Definitely a good series, and I've already recommended it to a teen.

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why more people haven't seen or read these books. I seriously don't understand. This novel is the third and last of the series, and I was thrilled when I first heard about it. A year after it was published. Unfortunately, all together, it seemed kind of rushed. Alas. More later. I'm distracted.

[Veronica Keeney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a fun,high powered series.The book starts off with Durango and Vienne separate.Along their quest for each other,we meet new characters like the Koumanovs.Old characters are incorporated as well.Some are a bit stereotypical,but the fast paced story line is enjoyable.I think a good series for teens.

[Brigitta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! A fantastic and action packed ending to an awesome series!

On my second three day re-read of the series: I just love, love, love this series! So funny and exciting. Amazing characters with a kick butt plot. I would highly recommend to any sci-fi fans.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hm. Interesting. Especially the use of present tense. Threw me off at first until I got used to it.
I'll admit I was a bit confused for the first couple of chapters, but it would probably help if I read the first two books of the series first :P

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Space cowboy Durango, AI sidekick Mimi and kickass love interest Vienne are back for round 3 in this continually excellent & exciting sci fi series. A slightly less cheesy cover than #2, but may still turn off the intended YA boy audience.

[Perla The IB Teen Book Blogger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't review thus book without spoilers!!

[CatMom530 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hell's Cross series has to be hands down my absolute favorite series ever!!!!!

[usagi ☆ミ · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good, I'm sorry that this is the end of the series. Or at least it appears to be. Review to come!

[Lishika · Rating 5 out of 5]

sooooooooooooooooo good. i loved it! i wish there were more books. maybe were the dreau can come back or something. i want more Durango and Mimi.