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Class 5
Seguro, Arizona is the definition of a quiet desert town. An oasis, hours away from the nearest city.
However, on this night, a mechanical malfunction has triggered a desperate and vicious pursuit through the desert. Hunter and hunted alike are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed in their missions and neither is going to let anything stand in their way.
Unfortunately, for the residents of Seguro, their quiet little town is about to become the center of a deadly game of hide and seek...
However, on this night, a mechanical malfunction has triggered a desperate and vicious pursuit through the desert. Hunter and hunted alike are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed in their missions and neither is going to let anything stand in their way.
Unfortunately, for the residents of Seguro, their quiet little town is about to become the center of a deadly game of hide and seek...
- GenresHorror
254 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2013
21 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 30, 2014
Near the small desert town of Seguro Arizona, an alien spaceship malfunctions and crashes into the desert creating a class 5 incursion. The lone survivor, a deadly form known as a Silver, signals for help and proceeds to seek shelter and nourishment until its kind arrives to retrieve it. Unfortunately for the town, the Silver starts feeding on people and its body gives off toxic spores that cause respiratory failure to those near it. The military sends out Captain Sean Tharris to find and eliminate the creature before it can escape. He also has orders to kill anyone who comes in contact with the Silver or his men...
This was a fun read! Before this, I had never read anything by Horton and I'm definitely looking forward to more. He kept my interest throughout the book with the original alien and a likable (and dislikable) cast of characters. The story reminds me of Men in Black with the unique alien and clandestine government action but it is definitely more hardcore. If you've never read a book by Horton, give this one a try!
This was a fun read! Before this, I had never read anything by Horton and I'm definitely looking forward to more. He kept my interest throughout the book with the original alien and a likable (and dislikable) cast of characters. The story reminds me of Men in Black with the unique alien and clandestine government action but it is definitely more hardcore. If you've never read a book by Horton, give this one a try!
February 21, 2014
(Disclosure: this is a review of a complimentary copy of the book provided by the author in exchange for a fair review.)
What if, instead of making flowers bloom and repurposing spelling toys, E.T. had opted instead to simply bite Elliot’s face off and snack on the delightful meat within?
That’s a pretty close description of how the reader is brought into the world of Class 5 by Shaun Horton.
In this world, alien invasions, while not necessarily commonplace, are a catalogued phenomena, with an entire elite military division dedicated to keeping them a secret. I almost said “protecting civilians from the alien threat”, but not so much.
As the book gets going, our stranded “Silver” alien is on the run, trying to find enough food (i.e. people) to eat until his buddies can return to pick him up. On the other side, we have THE MILITARY, headed up by the ruthless Captain Tharris and his special detachment. Caught in the middle are the civilians of Seguro, AZ, and the surrounding area.
I will say that Class 5 is a very fast read. However, and a little unfortunately, it comes off like a very fast write as well.
It’s hard to come down too hard on what seems like a very earnest effort, and I’m all for encouraging the self-publishing revolution. But… this novel needed at least one rewrite, if not two.
The logic that Horton sets up to drive his plot (and nothing at all wrong with the plot - the cat and mouse aspect promised on the liner note, when it works, is quite entertaining) falls down as soon as anyone asks “why?” As in “why would this character do that?” or, more appropriately, “why the hell would they not have done this?” The answer - and a good summary of what I took away from the novel was “because that’s what happens next.”
A good example, though it includes a spoiler, comes in the middle of the book, when Tharris and his crew, who seem to take their “minimal civilian casualties” order to mean… [spoiler] "Sure, we can blow up this hospital."[/spoiler]
Even if you accept their twisted trigger-happy logic, there is a witness to this - who hears the entire plan, gets away and does NOTHING about it. He rescues the story’s main protagonist-by-default, and takes her home to clean her up. Later, he feels a little guilty that he didn’t call the police (or, you know, anybody else at the [spoiler]hospital[/spoiler] to tell them to get the hell out) and essentially shrugs his shoulders that “it was probably too late”.
Horton piles misery on his protagonist (who really isn’t a part of the story for the first five chapters), and then pulls her out basically by saying that she pulled out of it.
Okay - before I get too negative - there are some redeeming moments. The chapters written from the alien’s perspective are somewhat enjoyable, and the physical struggles the thing is enduring to stay alive in the Arizona atmosphere make the alien the most three dimensional character in the book. (Though it’s hard to take its criticism of the human race’s “barbarism” when those thoughts are being had over a mouthful of mailman.)
All in all, this book, while I can’t recommend it, shows that the author does have the potential chops to deliver a satisfying action story, he just has to make sure there’s a few more rounds of review, edit, re-write before hitting “publish.”
Extended review on my blog here: http://chrisallinotte.tumblr.com/post...
What if, instead of making flowers bloom and repurposing spelling toys, E.T. had opted instead to simply bite Elliot’s face off and snack on the delightful meat within?
That’s a pretty close description of how the reader is brought into the world of Class 5 by Shaun Horton.
In this world, alien invasions, while not necessarily commonplace, are a catalogued phenomena, with an entire elite military division dedicated to keeping them a secret. I almost said “protecting civilians from the alien threat”, but not so much.
As the book gets going, our stranded “Silver” alien is on the run, trying to find enough food (i.e. people) to eat until his buddies can return to pick him up. On the other side, we have THE MILITARY, headed up by the ruthless Captain Tharris and his special detachment. Caught in the middle are the civilians of Seguro, AZ, and the surrounding area.
I will say that Class 5 is a very fast read. However, and a little unfortunately, it comes off like a very fast write as well.
It’s hard to come down too hard on what seems like a very earnest effort, and I’m all for encouraging the self-publishing revolution. But… this novel needed at least one rewrite, if not two.
The logic that Horton sets up to drive his plot (and nothing at all wrong with the plot - the cat and mouse aspect promised on the liner note, when it works, is quite entertaining) falls down as soon as anyone asks “why?” As in “why would this character do that?” or, more appropriately, “why the hell would they not have done this?” The answer - and a good summary of what I took away from the novel was “because that’s what happens next.”
A good example, though it includes a spoiler, comes in the middle of the book, when Tharris and his crew, who seem to take their “minimal civilian casualties” order to mean… [spoiler] "Sure, we can blow up this hospital."[/spoiler]
Even if you accept their twisted trigger-happy logic, there is a witness to this - who hears the entire plan, gets away and does NOTHING about it. He rescues the story’s main protagonist-by-default, and takes her home to clean her up. Later, he feels a little guilty that he didn’t call the police (or, you know, anybody else at the [spoiler]hospital[/spoiler] to tell them to get the hell out) and essentially shrugs his shoulders that “it was probably too late”.
Horton piles misery on his protagonist (who really isn’t a part of the story for the first five chapters), and then pulls her out basically by saying that she pulled out of it.
Okay - before I get too negative - there are some redeeming moments. The chapters written from the alien’s perspective are somewhat enjoyable, and the physical struggles the thing is enduring to stay alive in the Arizona atmosphere make the alien the most three dimensional character in the book. (Though it’s hard to take its criticism of the human race’s “barbarism” when those thoughts are being had over a mouthful of mailman.)
All in all, this book, while I can’t recommend it, shows that the author does have the potential chops to deliver a satisfying action story, he just has to make sure there’s a few more rounds of review, edit, re-write before hitting “publish.”
Extended review on my blog here: http://chrisallinotte.tumblr.com/post...
March 5, 2014
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Class 5 from the author, who said he’d like to know what I thought of it. Though he didn’t specifically ask for a review, I want to make sure no one questions the validity of this one. I like what I like.
Class 5 was a little bit sci-fi and a little bit horror—just enough of each to keep me turning pages quickly. The story caught my interest right away and kept it.
The basic premise involves an alien crash-landing on Earth and trying to hide while keeping itself alive until a rescue team comes to bring it to its home planet. The military, aware of these occasional happenings, is equally determined to find and eliminate the alien. This particular alien type is known as a Silver, one of the more dangerous types, and it derives its nourishment (unfortunately) from humans while it waits for its ride. Because of the dry Arizona environment, it’s constantly trying to remain hydrated by staying out of the daylight while fighting the need for adequate nourishment…and the leisure time to enjoy its meals when it finds them.
Not only does the military team have to find and kill the Silver, but it also has to determine who has had close contact with the dead in its wake, because the creature leaves a trail of toxic spores which cause respiratory arrest in the infected. Those dying of the spore infection pass along more spores, and so on. The military team not only takes measures to cover the trail of the dying, but begins to take the mission parameters further and further into madness under the leadership of their captain.
I didn’t really care for the female main character. Yes, she lost everything, but she didn’t really seem like that great a wife and mother, so my sympathy for her was minimal. Also, another main character didn’t do the “obvious” logical thing when presented with a preventable catastrophe; i.e., go and tell someone so they could stop it. However, neither of these things lessened my enjoyment of the book.
You know what enhanced my enjoyment of Class 5? Reading a novel by a self-published author that was not riddled with grammatical errors, misspellings, clichés and who knows what else. There was a handful of comma splices and typos, but they were very few in number and clearly edit errors, rather than an author not knowing how to form a sentence.
This is the first book I’ve read by Shaun Horton, and I believe it won’t be my last.
Class 5 was a little bit sci-fi and a little bit horror—just enough of each to keep me turning pages quickly. The story caught my interest right away and kept it.
The basic premise involves an alien crash-landing on Earth and trying to hide while keeping itself alive until a rescue team comes to bring it to its home planet. The military, aware of these occasional happenings, is equally determined to find and eliminate the alien. This particular alien type is known as a Silver, one of the more dangerous types, and it derives its nourishment (unfortunately) from humans while it waits for its ride. Because of the dry Arizona environment, it’s constantly trying to remain hydrated by staying out of the daylight while fighting the need for adequate nourishment…and the leisure time to enjoy its meals when it finds them.
Not only does the military team have to find and kill the Silver, but it also has to determine who has had close contact with the dead in its wake, because the creature leaves a trail of toxic spores which cause respiratory arrest in the infected. Those dying of the spore infection pass along more spores, and so on. The military team not only takes measures to cover the trail of the dying, but begins to take the mission parameters further and further into madness under the leadership of their captain.
I didn’t really care for the female main character. Yes, she lost everything, but she didn’t really seem like that great a wife and mother, so my sympathy for her was minimal. Also, another main character didn’t do the “obvious” logical thing when presented with a preventable catastrophe; i.e., go and tell someone so they could stop it. However, neither of these things lessened my enjoyment of the book.
You know what enhanced my enjoyment of Class 5? Reading a novel by a self-published author that was not riddled with grammatical errors, misspellings, clichés and who knows what else. There was a handful of comma splices and typos, but they were very few in number and clearly edit errors, rather than an author not knowing how to form a sentence.
This is the first book I’ve read by Shaun Horton, and I believe it won’t be my last.
March 23, 2015
This one surprised me, in a good way. It was basically E.T. with a savage alien rather than a nice one. In addition, the government agents sent to track down the creature will stop at nothing to protect the existence of aliens. This includes destroying and murdering an entire town if need be. The novel actually reminded me a bit of Stephen King, particularly the main villain. The main villain is NOT the alien, although he's not nice either.
The only real complaint I had was the government came across a little too ruthless here, but the reason for that becomes a little clearer as the novel progresses.
Overall a good read for fans of horror and sci-fi.
The only real complaint I had was the government came across a little too ruthless here, but the reason for that becomes a little clearer as the novel progresses.
Overall a good read for fans of horror and sci-fi.
May 23, 2023
Exciting
Could it be that this has happened before? Would we even know? I sure hope I never experience anything like that creature personally. I can agree with its evaluation of humans to a degree, though. Makes a good story.
Could it be that this has happened before? Would we even know? I sure hope I never experience anything like that creature personally. I can agree with its evaluation of humans to a degree, though. Makes a good story.
November 8, 2021
Excellent
Good story line which takes you on an unusual journey in the hidden world of ideas and actions.
Recommended reading.
Good story line which takes you on an unusual journey in the hidden world of ideas and actions.
Recommended reading.
December 8, 2013
Fully transparent disclaimer: A copy of novel was provided free in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Find this review at: Ravenous Reads.
The second novel by new author, Shaun Horton, Class 5 displays a sure and deft hand in quickly setting up its darker take on a Men in Black premise: An alien has crashed near a small town in the Arizona desert, and the army - fully aware of the occasional incursion of various alien beings - sends out a team of soldiers to take down the alien and see to anyone who catches a glimpse of the creature. There's no cartoon-like "flashy thing" here, however. Instead in Horton's universe, the soldiers ruthlessly eliminate anyone who sees too much, setting up a double threat that the innocent civilians in Seguro may never escape from. Complicating matters still further is Horton's rather original addition to the threat posed by his alien. Essentially the creature is covered by spores that become lethal to humans if they are exposed to them for any length of time.
Class 5 starts out exceedingly well, and while some of its initial promise may not be lived up to, it remains an enjoyable variation on the "aliens among us" theme that sci-fi authors frequently turn to. The alien is suitably menacing and the chapters from its perspective offer some interesting perspectives on how a life form far in advance of humanity might view our behaviour. The infection element also provides a great change of pace and adds to the urgency of what the characters are facing.
At about 160 pages, Class 5 wastes no time getting into the action and there's little that could be trimmed to improve what's on offer. There are the standard formatting errors for a self-published work (for example, periods where there should be commas and vice versa), but thankfully very few typos. The late introduction of anyone that could be termed as a likeable protagonist is something of an issue, however, as the reader is left with the leader of the soldiers as their main reference point, and his gradual unraveling makes it difficult to connect to him.
Though Class 5 settles for a largely predictable ending, there's no reason why Horton could not return to the universe he has established here and flesh out what he has begun. I, for one, would happily sign up for the ride.
3.5 Fungal Infections for Class 5.
Find this review at: Ravenous Reads.
The second novel by new author, Shaun Horton, Class 5 displays a sure and deft hand in quickly setting up its darker take on a Men in Black premise: An alien has crashed near a small town in the Arizona desert, and the army - fully aware of the occasional incursion of various alien beings - sends out a team of soldiers to take down the alien and see to anyone who catches a glimpse of the creature. There's no cartoon-like "flashy thing" here, however. Instead in Horton's universe, the soldiers ruthlessly eliminate anyone who sees too much, setting up a double threat that the innocent civilians in Seguro may never escape from. Complicating matters still further is Horton's rather original addition to the threat posed by his alien. Essentially the creature is covered by spores that become lethal to humans if they are exposed to them for any length of time.
Class 5 starts out exceedingly well, and while some of its initial promise may not be lived up to, it remains an enjoyable variation on the "aliens among us" theme that sci-fi authors frequently turn to. The alien is suitably menacing and the chapters from its perspective offer some interesting perspectives on how a life form far in advance of humanity might view our behaviour. The infection element also provides a great change of pace and adds to the urgency of what the characters are facing.
At about 160 pages, Class 5 wastes no time getting into the action and there's little that could be trimmed to improve what's on offer. There are the standard formatting errors for a self-published work (for example, periods where there should be commas and vice versa), but thankfully very few typos. The late introduction of anyone that could be termed as a likeable protagonist is something of an issue, however, as the reader is left with the leader of the soldiers as their main reference point, and his gradual unraveling makes it difficult to connect to him.
Though Class 5 settles for a largely predictable ending, there's no reason why Horton could not return to the universe he has established here and flesh out what he has begun. I, for one, would happily sign up for the ride.
3.5 Fungal Infections for Class 5.
March 25, 2014
Class 5 is an action packed alien horror book - with all the normal plot lines that could come from a Syfy movie of the week. In one cornet is the veteran, slightly crazed Army officer, the next cornet has the innocent good-looking waitress, next comes the do-gooder hero, and finally the alien that like humans as a snack.
The book is ok if you want a quick horror book, but lacks definition and tends to be very black and white.
*I got this book through GoodRead's Giveaways - an excellent source of interesting books!
The book is ok if you want a quick horror book, but lacks definition and tends to be very black and white.
*I got this book through GoodRead's Giveaways - an excellent source of interesting books!
March 25, 2014
I'm not sure how to really review this book. I think this is one of those good ideas but not sure about the execution moments. What made the book less enjoyable for me were the main characters, I just really didn't give a damn about any of them. The spore idea was very reminiscent of dreamcatcher. I don't really have any more to say about this book!
March 17, 2014
I really enjoyed this book. The story and characters are wonderful. From the first page you are hooked into a horror story, a sci-fi story, a great story.
Not your ET phone home kinda book.
Take the time to read Class-5, you won't regret it.
Not your ET phone home kinda book.
Take the time to read Class-5, you won't regret it.
October 8, 2013
As I first started to read this I thought it would be a cliched alien novel, it turned out to be an exciting and action packed story that kept you reading .
April 30, 2017
I've been reading lots of alien stories lately and loving it, so I was happy to find this one. What I probably liked the most is that you follow the story from the POV of the Silver (a stranded alien from an advanced species that think nothing of humans), and the POV from the governments' agents sent to 'clean up' and either capture or kill the alien. (Done in third person POV)
I think I will take this opportunity to specify that this book has violence in both the way the alien kills his prey and feeds, and the way the agents get rid of whoever is infected or just witnessed something. So if you're thinking about a cozy story, this is not for you.
One of the things I found hard about the book is that I couldn't actually relate to no one. At some point I almost sided with the alien since no one else was worthy of my sympathy. I caught myself hoping he'd get away.
Overall an entertaining story that you may want to read during the daylight. Just saying. (I don't think I'll ever think of caramel apples the same way ever again.)
I think I will take this opportunity to specify that this book has violence in both the way the alien kills his prey and feeds, and the way the agents get rid of whoever is infected or just witnessed something. So if you're thinking about a cozy story, this is not for you.
One of the things I found hard about the book is that I couldn't actually relate to no one. At some point I almost sided with the alien since no one else was worthy of my sympathy. I caught myself hoping he'd get away.
Overall an entertaining story that you may want to read during the daylight. Just saying. (I don't think I'll ever think of caramel apples the same way ever again.)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews