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.