A decade ago, the alien Creepers came to Earth, dropping asteroids to drown our coastal cities, detonating nuclear weapons overhead to destroy our communications, power and computer systems, and to set up their network of killer stealth satellites to kill anything on our planet that used modern technology. In a matter of days, Earth was driven back to a nineteenth century existence.
Then the war really began, as the Creepers descended and set up domed bases that were impervious to everything save a nuclear bomb.
For ten years then, the battered and surviving members of humanity have fought against the Creepers and their mechanized exoskeletons, until something unexpected has happened: a chance for victory.
Sixteen‑year‑old Randy Knox has the usual problems of a teenage boy: getting along with his father, dating his sweetheart, and trying not to fail his junior year of high school. But Randy also has other demands on his time, as a sergeant in the N.H. National Guard, attached to the U.S. Army, and fighting the invading Creepers.
Randy has dim memories of a time of electric lights, laptop computers, television screens and above all, plenty of food at every meal. On his twelfth birthday, he enlisted in the Army to carry on the fight, since most of the world’s adults have been killed off and it’s up to the younger generations to serve. But now, as a veteran of the Creeper war and with his K‑9 partner Thor, Randy has learned to focus on the essentials: the best way to kill a Creeper, scrounge through abandoned buildings for old canned goods, and to avoid being turned into “barbecue bait.” He has earned the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. Endless war is all he knows.
But now change has drastically come to his life. The current President of the United States—a former Assistant Secretary of Defense—has announced that scattered remnants of the Air Force have destroyed the Creeper’s Orbital Base, ensuring victory over the alien invaders. Those surviving Creepers on the Earth’s surface will be hunted down and exterminated, as a weary and wary population celebrates victory.
Yet Randy is assigned a new mission: to escort a secret representative from the Governor of New Hampshire to the nation’s capital, to meet with the President. And at the last moment, a fellow teen soldier—the beautiful Serena Coulson and her mute younger brother Buddy—are assigned to join Randy.
This secretive mission proves to be the most dangerous assignment of his life, as Randy tries to protect his charges from rampaging Creepers and criminal humans. And as he fights to reach the capitol with a vital mission, Randy learns that all of his skills in combating aliens may not be enough to survive the dark conspiracies of his fellow humans.
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Product Reviewtale of two books. first 300 pages are great, four or five stars... problem is the ending that I feel like the writer had a deadline to submit and plugged in an ending based on current trends rather than building to a better multi book ending. really liked the start, ffix the end..
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Product Review16 year old sergeant in Recon may seem a stretch, but DuBois makes it work so well.
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Product ReviewSomething a little new, a look at the world after an alien invasion when children have to grow up fast , the fighting men die off yet the politicans, like cockroaches, continue to survive ( though they do get stepped on more than occasionally ) life is simple yet complex as the life of a teenager always is and the protagonist takes us through it all.Wth a little of the early Sterling writing thrown in with the asides that give you a glimpse of how he contstructed and sees his world this is a writer to watch and look forward to his next book and hope is sequel to this one.
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Product ReviewI liked the premises of the book. War with aliens humans don't understand. The action in the book jumps along with a little skip and hop. Ok for a juvenile book I guess. Somewhat simplified ending.
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