Major Jake Thomas is on a roll. With the help of the Artificial Life: Intelligent Computing Environments, or ALICE systems, he has successfully faced off with the hostile NeHaw three times. With continued support from his inner circle of female recruits, all handpicked by the ALICEs to further their own agenda, he continues to try to help the earth return to glory. As he works to assemble a space fleet from captured and constructed vessels to address the expanding NeHaw aggression, the terrestrial challenges at home continue to pile up. With troubles in California, Maine, and Washington State to plague Jake and his team, the threat of a two front war looms ahead.
This is a hard book to rate because the first third of this book is some of the worst crap I have ever read (see rant below for details). The rest of the book is passable with a pretty good ending. I like the set up so I forced myself to keep reading past the crap and will go on to the next book in the series.
The Rant [SPOILERS]:
The book starts really stupidly with 4 schmucks infiltrating a high security area by simply putting on women’s clothing and climbing in a helicopter. Never mind that that should not have been remotely possible with all the security people and an AI monitoring them. But the security people are all incompetents since, even though they received training night and day, not one of the security people could handle the situation without the one person absolutely everything is dependent on risking his life by walking into a hostage situation.
The MC, Jake Thomas, is the sole surviving person authorized to access the AI and the AI is the sole hope of humanity. So for him to risk his life in any way is absolute stupidity per the author's own story line. In short, the opening scene of this book is one of the most moronic things I’ve every read. The author apparently felt the need to show his main character was a bad-ass so desperately that he couldn't be bothered with little things like showing his main character to be a complete moron or staying true to his own story.
Not satisfied with level one bad-assery the author next has the MC lead a raid into post-apocalypse LA even though there are specially trained security people for this very mission AND THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF HUMANITY DEPENDS ON THE MC's SURVIVAL. The MC is in a fight for the very existence of humanity and has space ships. Why is this happening at all?????? Why doesn’t he just torch LA from space????? Sure, we find out that the LA people the MC is after have families but that is the very reason the LA people shouldn’t steal weapons from the people trying to make the world safe again. AGAIN, THIS IS AN APOCALYPTIC SCENARIO- you don’t risk the existence of all humanity just to find out how bad the people WHO STOLE GUNS AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS FROM YOU are. Unfortunately the MC taking stupid risks not justified by the rest of the story is a fairly common occurrence in dystopian novels. I don’t know if authors are just unwilling to follow their own scenarios through to their logical conclusions or if authors don’t believe readers would like it. At this point I don’t really care. The author is ruining his own story by turning his MC into an idiot that can’t recognize human survival depends on his staying alive. Plus the incompetents he’s working with who, in a world ruled by guns, can’t keep their guns secure. AND YET IT GETS WORSE!!!!!!!!!! THE LA BAD GUYS STOLE THE GUNS TO MAKE CONTACT???????????? NEVER MIND THAT THE LA BAD GUYS COULD HAVE JUST MADE THE EQUIVALENT OF A PHONE CALL SINCE ONE OF THEM WAS ALREADY IN THE MILITIA BEING SPONSORED AND SUPPORTED BY THE MC. I REALLY CAN’T BELIEVE HOW STUPID THIS WHOLE STORY LINE IS. STUPID THIEVES WHO STEAL AS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION IN A WORLD WHERE RAPE AND MURDER ARE COMMON????? STUPID ALLIES WHO CAN’T SECURE THEIR OWN WEAPONS AND A STUPID MAIN CHARACTER WHO NEEDLESSLY RISKS HIS OWN LIFE WHEN HIS DEATH WOULD END ALL HUMAN RESISTANCE TO THE ALIEN INVADERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND WHY DID THE THIEVES DO THIS????? BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T WANT TO MOVE OUT OF THE DANGEROUS CITY INTO THE SAFE AREA!!!!!!!!!! THEY EVEN GO SO FAR AS TO TURN DOWN AN OFFER OF HELP IN MOVING FROM THE MC WHO HAS FLYING MOTORCYCLES, HELICOPTERS AND SPACESHIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW F-ING STUPID ARE THESE PEOPLE????????? LARGE GANGS TRYING TO KILL YOU IS AN EXCELLENT REASON TO MOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yet it gets worse . . .
The moronic MC isn’t satisfied just risking his own life for no real reason (since he has troops to deal with this stuff). No, he has to also bring along his second-in-command and true love who, in spite of having super high tech all around her which is monitored by an AI, is surprised and captured. Worse, she gets off several gunshots, which the AI somehow magically fails to register, as does all of the troops in the area, including the MC who is about 300 yards away (roughly, based on the non-sniper rifle MC uses at the start of combat). And yet it gets worse. . .
To control their prisoners the worse LA bad guys (as opposed to the LA bad guys who stole the weapons) strap a “mini-claymore” to the MC's true love with a string. Personally, had I been in the true love's position WITH THE FUTURE OF ALL OF HUMANITY IN THE BALANCE, I would have immediately triggered the claymore. It may kill my captors. My armor may protect me. But even if neither of those things happened the bad guys would have lost pretty much everything with my death since, AGAIN, THE MC CAN BOMBARD THEM FROM SPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yet it gets worse. . .
The idiots who grabbed the second in command did so because they saw a group of armed and armored super soldiers flying over their 18th century technology holdout. So, already not smart enough to realize they shouldn’t piss off the people with flying motorcycles, machine guns and body armor. However once they do grab her they are unable to hurt her in anyway because of her high tech body armor. DO THEY THEN REALIZE THEY’VE BITTEN OFF MORE THAN THEY CAN CHEW??????????? SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN OBVIOUS FROM THE FLYING MOTOR CYCLES ALONE!!!!!!!!! NO. And, even though the whole premise for this encounter was that they saw the flying motorcycles on their way in, they don’t prepare for an attack by their prisoner’s companions. NO, THEY JUST TIE HER UP AND INEFFECTIVELY ASSAULT HER SINCE THEY CAN’T REMOVE HER BODY ARMOR. And yet it gets worse . . .
THE PERSON THE FUTURE OF ALL HUMANITY DEPENDS ON THEN UNDERTAKES A SOLO MISSION INTO DODGER STADIUM, THE STRONGHOLD OF THE WORSE LA BAD GUYS. IF ONLY HE HAD TRAINED PEOPLE TO DO THIS FOR HIM . . . OH WAIT, HE DOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yet it gets worse . . .
The MC does all of this even though he is still recovering from injuries received when he stupidly waded into the hostage situation his incompetent (in spite of constant training) security allowed to happen.
To date I have only encountered one scene in a book more stupid. There a super villain who has spent years successfully hiding her identity literally flew down out of the sky, announced who she was, what her power was and what her greatest weakness was in two sentences. That was the most stupid scene I’ve ever encountered. This is now a close second.
What is really sad is common sense was all that was called for. The thieves could have just not stolen anything and made contact and the troops trained for security and a planned infiltration of LA. Security personnel could have done their jobs and just like that this becomes an actually good book. And yet it gets worse . . .
In the next set of scenes it is revealed that the super intelligent AI that listens to everything all the time and was responsible for translating during negotiations with the “good” aliens who are also being oppressed by the “bad” aliens didn’t actually listen to what was said during those negotiations and so missed the fact that one of their new allies has an entire fleet of military vessels in orbit around their planet just waiting for a buyer (because, heaven forbid, they actually donate the ships to the people trying to free them from oppression). And yet it gets worse . . .
The AIs in this story are the lynch pin. They give humans the ability to beat the bad aliens in earth's vicinity. Even though there is FTL communication that can support holograms, for some reason it does not allow the AIs to remotely pilot more distant battleships like they do with the ones in earth orbit. And for some reason there are no attempts to make more AIs, let alone to start putting them on spaceships so they can just take themselves wherever they are needed UNTIL THE VERY END AND THEN ONLY BEGRUDGINGLY BECAUSE THESE PEOPLE ARE JUST TOO STUPID TO LIVE.
Bottom line: This book contains some of the worst crap I have ever read and the only reason it doesn't get just 1 star is I like the big picture scenario and some non-crap was mixed in.
Adolescent Sex Fantasies & Talentless Writing Abound
If you are an adult, SciFi reader, who never has experienced sexual intimacy in the real world, this book and series might be to your liking. For all others, it's a disappointing disaster.
The basic story concept had potential merit-USMC Captain awakens from an experimental stasis experiment, within an AI controlled, military research facility, about 150 years in the near future. The Earth has been subjected to an alien assault, which targeted technologies and militaries, as punishment for using advanced tech from a crashed alien spacecraft. The hero, starts to reboot other AI facilities, recivilizes North American population enclaves, establish order and defend the planet from returning aliens.
The serious caveat is that the writer lacks both skills and talent. Additionally, the author writes as if he was an adolescent teen, who found some old Playboy issues, treatises on polygamy and travel ads for Club Med. The hero of the book, is a super soldier (Marine), super lover, super engineer, super moral, super polygamist, super father, super fertile, super cartoonish. The sex isn't sexy, it's not even campy, it's boring. Never have so many busty, curvy, blonde, easy, farm girl vixens been so uninteresting. The editing/proofreading is totally absent.
For a grown man to publicly publish such a train wreck, it's embarrassing. The book and series is so, so bad. It's super bad.
Colonel Thomas is discovering that he is a very wanted man. While normally that would be a good thing considering his unusual relationship status, there are problems brewing that need his undivided attention. The ALICE-3 facility has gone off-line. Considering that the AL stands for Artificial Life the ALICE's are concerned about their sister, however ALICE 1 has informed Jake there is a greater reason to be concerned. However, because of the special nature of the facility Jake as the last surviving registered electorate has to elect himself President of the United States just to be granted access to the what ALICE 3 was tasked with doing. Of the 8 ALICE facilities scattered around the united states ALICE 3 is the Special Weapons Research facility. Yeah those kind of weapons. Without the ALICE systems to monitor and control the complex Jake literally has an unknown quantity of unknown weapons in unknown condition, and he is the ONLY one that the facility will permit to enter. Well if it was easy anyone would do it right?
I rated this a five....I would have rated it a 10....but we don't have that many stars...the ALICE series is a complex story __it's a fun story...with a great take the post apocalypse thing....If there was ever a mini series waiting to be made ALICE has my vote...CW lamb get those fingers flying...
Charles Lamb alternate universe is filling out into a modestly grand sci-fi gem as he continues his tale. The plotline is losing its rough edges, becoming an smoothly enjoyable yarn for the reader. I am looking forward to seeing how Mr. Lamb takes his characters into future stories.
Good book, but unlike the first book the first half was a bit boring. It did pick up and get to the point where you didn't want to stop reading. Of course, our hero, Jake returns and is just that a hero, a living legend in everyone's eyes. Worth the read. Looking forward to the third book.
If Alice-9 didn't end up the way I predicted I would have been disappointed, but I wasn't. More of the same from book one, just more in outer space. You know, children are our future, but we need energy to get us there. A lot of problems can be solved if we have a cheap portable endless power source. To infinity and beyond!
3.6 stars. Overall, a good read and an interesting premise. The only negative is that the story is too clean, somewhat like Star Trek The Next Generation, where you would never see a dirty engineer. The story could use a bit more grit.
Alice 9 is a terrific sequel to the original. The story progresses well with great detail and interesting developments. Alice 9 was thoroughly enjoyable. I can't wait for the next episode.
I cannot believe the author has not made Sarah pregnant. I can't believe it and what happened with the romantic life with Sarah and Jake? To much explanation on some subjects and not enough on some. Sarah needs a kid.
The editing needs work and sometimes the author seems to get tied down in minutiae but over all a decent series. The next book should pay off several of the story lines that have been planted so far.
First it's the story, then it's the plot, this makes a greater storyline to me. I really like this book, but you have to read book one first. It will give you the plotting of the books.
Alice 9 is a great read! The setting is earth future. The earth was attacked a century and a half in the past. The human race is slowly recovering and has been attacked again. A great story of survival and defense.
Great story well polished. a whirlwind story that i couldnt put down. I love the surprise elements to this story. there was a few loose ends but i guess will have to wait for the next book to see where they lead.
Good Sci Fi but sort of sexist very much so the hero has a harem of 8 women and 8 artificial intelligences that worship him. Sexism aside it is still a well written book with much to offer the fans of military science fiction.