Perhaps it's just that I haven't run across a really good
book in a long time, or it's that MIDNIGHT CITY by J. Barton
Mitchell is really good, but I was hooked from page one.
While it fits in the post-apocalyptic category, it has some
differences from the glut of books in this genre. Alien
invaders have come to Earth and begun to broadcast a tone
that makes people about aged 20 and older lose their free
will, leaving it to younger kids to fight back.
Bounty hunter Holt Hawkins, however, is immune to the Tone,
although he thinks this more a curse than a blessing as he
watches friends suffer as they fight and eventually lose
themselves.
So, Holt decides to steer clear of people, scavenging where
he can for trade, and plans to collect the reward for returning
treasure seeker Mira Toombs to Midnight City. What he
doesn't count on is an attraction to Mira, and a little girl
he rescues from a crashed Assembly ship who remembers only
her name, Zoey.
The three have a treacherous trip to Midnight City with
battles against mutants, Assembly, freedom fighters and
more, and things don't get any easier once they arrive.
Unlikely as it is, the three have forged a bond, but mostly
Holt and Mira vow to protect Zoey, who might hold answers to
ridding Earth of the Assembly once and for all.
J. Barton Mitchell's greatest talent is his ability to
world build. Second, he has the ability to develop
characters and interweave their back stories without
bogging down the story. There's a lot of action in MIDNIGHT
CITY, and while it slows in a couple place, the story never
flags. Each of Mitchell's characters has a distinctive
voice and tale with his or her own issues and demons to
battle. It's easy to empathize with all the characters and
root for them as well. Mitchell doesn't fall back on teen
angst -- that incessant internal wondering -- familiar to many
authors, and this is one reason I really enjoyed this book.
He explores many interesting ideas such as the point system
in Midnight City, artifacts from the Strange lands—an area
of the United States where coins and other articles have
powers. Mira is an expert and can create powerful reactions
by combining these objects. While it isn't magic per se,
it's a sort of magical component that fits in with this
post-apocalyptical tale.
I have to confess that I read the
other two books in the trilogy before writing this review,
so I can say most of the questions left unanswered after
book one are answered in subsequent titles.
Lord of the Flies meets War of the Worlds in J. Barton Mitchell's alien-
invaded post-apocalyptic world where two teens and a young girl with
amazing powers must stop the aliens’ mysterious plan
Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Assembly. The
human adult population is gone, having succumbed to the Tone---a
powerful, telepathic super-signal broadcast across the planet that reduces
them to a state of complete subservience. But the Tone has one critical
flaw. It only affects the population once they reach their early twenties,
which means that there is one group left to resist: Children.
Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an
infamous treasure seeker with a price on her head. It’s not long before Holt
bags his prey, but their instant connection isn’t something he bargained for.
Neither is the Assembly ship that crash-lands near them shortly after.
Venturing inside, Holt finds a young girl who remembers nothing except her
name: Zoey.
As the three make their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City,
they encounter young freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts,
pirates, feuding alien armies, and the amazing powers that Zoey is
beginning to exhibit. Powers that suggest she, as impossible as it seems,
may just be the key to stopping the Assembly once and for all.
Midnight City is the breathtaking first book of the Conquered Earth series.
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