This is one of those books that I
feel like I stole because I only paid 99¢. The story begins with a flu
pandemic. Then an alien space craft appears over the ocean in Southern
California. It quickly becomes apparent they brought the plague.
There are three main characters--Walt, who decides to walk from New
York to California after his actress girlfriend dies from the flu--and a
married couple, Raymond and Mia, who do their best to survive right
under the glare of the alien mothership. Walt is by far the best
character. He starts off as a doubtful, suicidal wimp and over 3,000
miles turns into the hero who doesn't care about being a hero. His
sarcastic of humor lends some real brevity to the story.
The
descriptions of the aliens and their actions didn't fill me with terror
but there was enough action on their part to give me a growing sense of
dread that the remaining humans would gradually be extinguished and this
would be one of those stories where the aliens win. Eventually
our characters meet but to say any more would spoil the story. I will
say that when I got to the end, I wondered why he had a second and even
third book but quickly realized so many questions hadn't been answered
by the first book.
