I am finding it increasingly difficult to root for Ben. This my review from Amazon.
Edit: At the time when I first wrote my review I was close to being finished with this book. I had about 30% left. In that time the main protagonist revealed a few… unheroic traits, let’s say. Spoiler warning.
“And more than we can afford.” Alter countered. “Gyer will take most of what we have.”
“It’ll be worth it,” I said.
Here Ben was referring to his surgery being worth it. Yes, saving a life is worth spending the money, but he didn’t have to say that. Especially not since the whole reason they went on the mission that earned them that money in the first place, was so he could have the surgery…
“Don’t hit her with friendly fire.”
That generally goes without saying… It’s more laughable when you consider the character saying this was saying it to a former Royal Marine.
“If the monsters on the other side did break through, maybe she (Alter) could stop them. Or maybe they would rip her apart. At the moment, I would have been content with either one.”
So, you remember that deus-ex-machina squirrel they came across in the first book? Well, he (the squirrel) decided to risk his life to buy the rest of the team time to escape. They managed to get to safety, but he was left behind and they had to seal the door off so they could stay alive, or they could run back and then everyone would die together. It was a tough choice no one would want to make, but Alter made it, and this is how he thought of her in that moment. She showed uncommon strength in acting to make sure they would all remain alive, and here is how Ben saw her. I think the author is trying to add negative traits to Ben so he can have room to grow in the rest of the series. Ben seemed like a pretty good guy when we first met him, so I have no explanation for how a morally and mentally sound person could go from where he was to this.
“Ben,” Alter said, turning me around again. “I’m sorry. About Shaq (deus-ex-machina squirrel). I didn’t see any other way to keep you safe.”
“Just like you killed a security guard to keep me safe?” I replied.
Here we witness the AH that is Ben, growing even bigger, or wider, or something.
“He’s crazy,” I said, glancing up at Alter (who was at this point lying on top of Ben to protect him from weapon fire). Her eyes were closed. I didn’t hear or feel her breathing, and I realized I didn’t know if she breathed in the first place (because he doesn’t understand the anatomy of a slime girl). I had always taken that for granted. “Alter?”
Now, here we witness Ben prioritizing the most important things first when he realizes Alter is basically lifeless on top of him. These are his primary concerns after seeing her unresponsive because she took the plasma fire that would have killed him. Well done, Ben.
I don’t know where this series goes from here, and I’m not sure I want to find out. On the one hand, I want to complete the series I started. On the other hand, I don’t feel like reading more about this jerk. At the end of this book the deus-ex-machina squirrel inexplicably shows up again, and pulls out another deus-ex-machina moment from somewhere that goes a long way toward saving the day. He basically defeated Thanos for them, right when we were led to believe all hope was lost.
********** original review **************
I’m glad I decided to keep up with this series. This one is a major improvement over the first book. You do have to suspend you disbelief a lot though. I know that’s a given in any science fiction setting, but you tell me, how easy is it to believe someone with an introduction to programming is hacking all these security systems? Anyway, I put it out of mind and enjoy the story. I like the new characters that were introduced, too.
My major gripe so far is that Ben keeps sometimes. Uses the imperative when speaking with Alter. The Alter character is someone he should be more respectful and submissive to in my opinion, but he often issues these commands to that character in a manner that come across as dominating. He doesn’t speak to the other characters this way unless giving orders for the current mission. My issue with this is mostly personal, since I dislike anyone using imperatives when talking to me. Of course, one must make exceptions at work, since one is paid to execute commands, but with colleagues that is a major no-no. The Alter character has exponentially more experience than Ben, so it leave a bad taste to have to see this kind of disregard from someone’s whose experience is: community college. I think Ben should try talking to Quasar like that.