Critical Path

Critical #2

by Darren Wearmouth

Destroying the croatoan’s seat of power has grave consequences.
Earth is recovering after Denver and his group managed to stamp out the immediate alien threat. Now, Denver and his team, stationed in a liberated croatoan farm, plan to restore humanity as the dominant force. But when shocking information comes to light, they set off on an immediate mission north.

Earth faces destruction, unless bitter enemies can work together.
The team encounter a hybrid city, where humans and croatoans live and work together. It’s here in this strange new civilisation that Denver discovers there’s a bigger threat to the planet than the aliens already on the surface: something far more terrible is coming. It’ll be a race against the clock to defeat this new threat and Denver will need all the help he can get.

Critical Path is the exciting sequel to Critical Dawn.

Genres: Science Fiction, Aliens, Post Apocalyptic, Amazon, Ebooks

367 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 9, 2014

About the author

AKA D.A. Wearmouth

Darren Wearmouth spent six years in the army before pursuing a career in corporate technology. After fifteen years working for large telecommunications firm and a start-up, he decided to follow his passion for writing.

His first novel was the best-selling FIRST ACTIVATION that he later sold to Amazon’s publishing imprint, 47North in a two-book deal. Darren is represented by Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit.

Darren’s a member of the International Thriller Writers organisation and currently lives in Manchester, England.

Reviews

[Greg Tymn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

There was a clear fall-off in action and plot movement in the second novel of the series. In terms of content, it felt like "half a book". Writing style was also simplified taking it down to grammar school readability. I doubt I'll buy the third novel, which is a disappointment to me since the first novel held promise.

[Mike Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent second instalment in this series. The post apocalyptic word that has been created by the authors is vivid as we see our survivors struggle in the aftermath of events in the first novel. Much like events in the modern world, the tyrannous power has been brought down leaving a power vacuum that equally tyrannous powers would very much like to fill. In this case the tyrant is Augustus, trying to take over Unity, a town inhabited by both humans and Croatons. Added to this, is the threat of Croaton destroyer that is said to be on the way to blow the planet up for what Charlie Jackson did to the mother ship. We see our survivors try and deal with both of these threats throughout this fast paced and exciting novel, while trying to secure the future of humanity. If you liked the first book, you will love this. Must read! Now I'm off to make a start on 'Critical Strike'.

[Loretta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read and good continuation for the Critical series. This story was just as excting as the first and was a fun thrilling read.

I can't wait to finish the series with book three.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually the books following the first of a series are never as good as the first - the first is filled with the shock and awe - or the intense feelings you can develop for the characters. With Darren Wearmouth's Critical Path, I don't find that to be necessarily true. I received this book from the author following the submitted review for Critical Dawn and although I intended to read it on my vacation, once I started, it was hard not to come back and finish.

With even greater threats to Earth looming in the future and with Augustus building an army or surviving Croatoans, Charlie, Denver and Layla, along with 3 aliens travel to the planet that hosts the jump gate to disable it. The destroyer doesn't beat them, but the enemy of the Croatoans, the enemy that makes even the ancient elder quake, appears.

Will they make it back to Earth? Will both Charlie and Denver survive? Will the original inhabitants of the planet help them or will they be considered enemies? Gotta read the next book to find out the answers.

[Jay Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing series

I recommend you start reading the first book to understand the storyline. This series has interesting characters and an intriguing storyline.

[Jas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t mind part 1 of this series, it was week in parts, there were problems with the plot line, the start of the book was confusing and the dialogue was weak, and I hoped that the second book was going to improve.
Unfortunately, it didn’t. The characters were very poor, even for this type of book. No one is expecting Pulitzer Prize writing, and I am all for just letting some bad stuff go if it means that you get a great Sci-Fi story. However, this just didn’t have it. The dialogue was weak again, making you cringe at times, the characters were like cardboard cut outs, a wading pool had more depth. A main character dies, and no one seems to care, it's like meh. But then again, one of the main characters has the same reaction to everything, planet is invaded, meh, everyone is dead, meh, I killed someone, meh, loved one died, meh… it's all so boring. And the rest of the characters are no better.
The only character than was vaguely amusing in the first book (Gregor), has turned into a creepy pervert, and is far from funny in this book.
As for the story, it bounces around all over the place. It's like they have a bunch of ideas, but are not sure how to link them. There are a select group of main characters that are unable to die, no matter how many times they seem to get ‘killed’, which is always annoying in a book. Then there is the magical root, which is able to fix everything, heal wounds, give you super human strength, and prevent aging. Whenever someone is in dire trouble, the root is there to get them out of it. On top of all of this, the story just seems to go on and on. They get past one mega crisis, only to have another even worse mega crisis come along. It's like they just kept dragging out the story for another book.
Things are not explained very well either. Why did they capture all the figures from history? Why do they use them in their army? There are a bunch of other questions, but they would be spoilers, and I don’t want to ruin it for someone who might be interested.
The story also seems to get lost at times between if it's a Sci-Fi book about an alien invasion (either post or pre), or about a psychotic Roman Emperor, resurrected to rebuild his Roman Empire.
I am someone who has to finish a book once started, so I made it to the end, but this was a difficult book to complete. Overall there are a lot of bad characters and poor story lines. I won't read the 3rd in the series. This is a shame as I am a huge fan of Colin Barnes.
Should be remembered, that these are my opinions, everyone is different.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a 3.5 stars for me.

The Croatoan mothership has been destroyed, and the human survivors from the first book are now living on the farm, and trying to make contact with other farms and survivors to start wiping out the remaining Croatoans on the planet. But then Denver gets some startling news, and everyone heads north, where they discover the town of Unity. Ruled by Aimee, another historical figure preserved by the Croatoans, both species live and work together in some sort of harmony. Denver makes a discovery that Charlie survived the destruction of the mothership, and so, unfortunately, did Augustus, but also learns that the Croatoans will not give up earth so easily. If they can't have it, then nobody can. So it's our heroes to the rescue again, with a desperate plan that sees some of them heading to a new world.

This book seemed somewhat slower than the previous book in the series. The narrative got a little bogged down in Unity, and, although there was some action, I'm not entirely convinced the whole of the Unity goings-on were necessary to the story. As with the previous book, I didn't feel a particular connection to any of the characters. The good and bad guys were much as before, and Augustus, while despicable, mainly survives through luck and a general slipperiness that sees him weasel out of situations that should have finished him off. Eventually his luck will run out, and I'll be cheering when it does. Some of the characters heading to another planet might, hopefully, liven up the third book.

There are still some unanswered questions here. The biggest one this time around was, why did the Croatoans preserve historical figures? There's no reason given, and, since Aimee is off running her little co-species town without Croatoan interference, one has to wonder why she was kept safe and alive for centuries. Are there other historical names elsewhere on earth? There's still no particular clarity around Pippa's death either, although we do learn that Gregor almost certainly wasn't responsible. But I'm possibly going barmy, or there was mention of Pippa being strangled, and of Pippa being killed by a blow to the head with a rock. Was it one, or the other, or both, or am I misremembering?

Entertaining, well written, but I'm not connecting with these as much as I thought I might, and I'm not sure why. I'll finish off the trilogy, though, I do want to find out how everything winds up.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

good sci fi read

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

onto the last in the series.

[Emmanuelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

So where's chapter 38-39? My Kindle version goes from chapter 37 to 40...

Will review further soon.

[Doreen Dalesandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: sci-fi, aliens
Rating: 3
I read the ebook.

It was an OK story. Will not be reading the next in the series, though.

[Dallas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced.

Good continuance of the first book.
Looking forward to the next.
Will be the first time I have completed Robin Hobb

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is okay, but the dialog is terrible.

[Louise Feagans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy thie series. I can't wait for the next one.