Battle Earth by Nick S Thomas

Well hello again universe. I know that in my last past, sadly well over a year ago, I still havent blogged much. As most of you out there will now know (please dont mention on Facebook), I am to be a father in a few months and I am still finding the prospect terrifying. I am however, now also a health nut and have been going to the gym every day so the somewhat chunky John most of you might know is now dead and is a new three stone slimmer model.

Over the past month I have read alot and heres a quick rundown of what I have read:

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (3/5)
I Am Number Four (4/5)
Robotech: The Macross Saga books 1-6 by Jack Mckinney (overall I would say 3.5/5)
Star Trek Destiny: Gods of Night by David Mack (4.5/5)
Star Trek Destiny: Mere Mortals (2.5/5)
Star Trek Destiny: Lost Souls (4/5)
Orphange by Robert Buettner (5/5) yes I should write a full blog about that as i've read it about 5 times in the past year.
Evolution Expects by Jonathan Green (5/5) another regular read so will defo have to write a review. Unlike the series of Buettner books where I only like the first in the quintology, I usually plough through Greens books in a day each, but will wait for the next book before I hit the entire series again.

So as you can see, I've read alot and I have been lazy when it comes writing. Thanks also to encouragement from my flatmate and a friend who seems to be able to make me want to always try harder at anything I do (in a good way) I have been working alot on writing myself. Whilst I dont consider anything that I do any good in my writing, I do enjoy doing it. Plus, said lady with severe powers over me says I should work harder to follow my dream of working some way in publishing. But hey, thats enough about what I am doing and my bad excuses, heres the review of Battle Earth by Nick S Thomas that I read yesterday and today.

I'm giving this a 4/5.

This is oddly enough the first time that I have seen the cover art for this as this is another that I downloaded on to the dreaded Kindle (see past blog post about Kindle to know I eat myself up every time I read from the devil machine).

It was easy for me to think that this book was written by an American as there are moments when it seems like only America can save the day. However, as the story progresses you get introduced to some brilliant Brit characters that from their descriptions sound like they are unstoppable titans.

This premise of this book is simple. Aliens show up and just invade. There is nothing in this from the alien point of view so you have no idea about their motivations and that also leads to many of the mistakes from the human nations in the beginning of this conflict. The main character is called Mitch Taylor a US Marine Major. He is thrown into the thick of it when the aliens, known simply as Mechs attack the moon colony, after already wiping out the Mars colony. The aliens remind me of elementals from the Battletech series of books, but are probably a lot taller and they use tank like vehicles and planes like humanity, only far more advanced.

This book is the first in a large series and I thoroughly enjoyed it and bought part two as soon as I finished this book with the first chapter already seeming to be as enjoyable as the first. My problem with the second book of Robert Buettners Jason Wander series is the first book is epic, and then the following books shift in style and the story just isn't as good. This however seems to keep going so I am rather looking forward to the next part.

There is nothing deep about this book, it is quite simply humans defending their home as best as they can against overwhelming, near invincible foes. The book does not get bogged down by politics and thankfully no religious beliefs, it is a simple war book and it could be because I felt like some really good escapism, but its well worth a read and I implore you to give it a try.