Resistance: The Gathering Storm
This is the worst book I've read all year. I assumed that this book would have some interesting things to add in the Resistance universe. I thought that a book of 340 pages would offer at least some insight into the Chimera that the game hadn't already told me. But no. Perhaps a clue to what awaits inside this pulpy mess can be found on the very cover of said book. Take a gander and see if you can find anything to be a bit fishy.
*Ring!* Times up.
William C. Dietz, Bestselling author of HALO: The Flood. Gad zooks! Was there really no-one in the entire world that could be trusted to write a book of one of Halo's competitors? Apparently not.
Admittedly the things that Dietz seems to know an awful lot about are military jargon and basic military strategy. He also seems to think he knows a lot about the human condition. Unfortunately this is all he focuses on for most of the entire book. It makes me wonder if he really even played any of the games, much less beat any of them. I really wanted this to be a good book. But Dietz chooses to focus on people we don't care about. Probably a 1/3 of the story is focused on the President of the US and his cabinet, and the horrible job they are doing. I can cite 2-3 instances in which Dietz chooses to name the entire staff and their titles before getting on with the story. Resulting in an almost meaningless roll call that takes up nearly half a page to get through.
Then there is the hackneyed and overraught side story of Nathan Hale's love life. I'm pretty sure it's only in there because a certain intel in Resistance 2 mentions that Hale got in trouble for fraternizing with a woman. "'You aren't my first," Cassie said softly. 'But it's been a long time.'
Hale understood and kissed her concerns away as he removed the last of her clothing... Her coral-tipped breasts were small but pert. He reached out and drew a line between them down to her belly-button. She smiled dreamily.
'Do you like what you see?'"
*RING!* Time's up. The answer is, "No!"
There are some interesting characters that we only really get to see very briefly. There is a Freedom First operative named Spook. She's covered in occult tatoos and has a Chimeran Howler for a pet. Then there is Shepard-Daedalus. This is what I was looking forward to when I picked up this book and began reading it. Unfortunately we get a brief chapter about Shepard and a mere brief paragraph through Daedalus' perspective.
In the last third of the book, one would assume that the tension is heightened and things get interesting. Not so. This is when the book really kind of fell apart for me. Not that there was much to begin with. The part that really got to me is when Hale of all people is trying to infiltrate Freedom First, a group in opposition to the President of the US. Hale walks right in to the recruitment office, with his golden chimera eyes, and tries to pass them off as a genetic disorder. Riiiight. It's only when his long lost sister recognizes him that they figure out that somethings up.
Then as briefly as we are introduced to Hale's long lost sister, we find her at the end of a Fareye (sniper rifle) trying to assasinate the president of the United States. Luckily Hale is there to save the day and only grazes her skull with a shot from his Fareye.
At the end of the story. The main bad guy, which isn't even Chimera, gets what is coming. But at this point I don't really care. And neither am I excited for the next book to come out. I think I've seen enough of what's gathering.
THUMBS DOWN! :evil:
P.S. I promise my next blog will be a more positive one. lol
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