Rating: 3.75 stars
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Length: Novella
Revolt is the third book in T.J. Nichols’ exciting Captured Earth series. The books form one long story and should be read in order. This review will therefore have some spoilers for previous books in the series.
Josh and Xavier have decided to stay behind in Georgetown with a few others and send the rest of their group on to safety. Now that Andrew has proven a traitor and let the Geckos know where they are, Josh knows their only chance is to make a stand in town. That way, hopefully at least the other group can make it back into Australia and give word about all they have learned. Josh knows their chances of surviving a showdown are not good, but at least they now have some better ideas of what may kill the Geckos.
Even as Josh and his team prepare to take a stand, there is a lot of conflict among them. No one is sure what to do with Andrew now that he has betrayed them. Josh is just as happy to let the bugs at him, but not everyone is comfortable with letting Andrew die. Not to mention that the remaining group isn’t all thrilled that they are staying behind, rather than taking the boat to safety with the others. With civilians and military who are untrained in ground combat, their fighting force is not strong, and the group is still plagued by injuries.
The biggest conflict comes, however, when it is time to decide what to do next after the showdown in Georgetown. Josh and Xaveir find themselves at odds, as Josh wants to head to the coast and hopefully safety, while Xavier feels like they need to try once again to take down the alien base. It is reminiscent of the argument the men had before the war about whether the join the fight, and it is causing conflict for the men just when they need to be united. But Josh and Xavier have survived too much to let things fall apart now. They are determined to do whatever it takes to fight for their lives and their future together.
Revolt concludes the Captured Earth trilogy and brings us the final showdown for Josh and Xavier. It picks up right where Regroup left off, with the team facing the impending battle with the Geckos. As with the other books, this one has lots of exciting and intense moments as they fight the aliens. I like that the story is nicely scary, with real moments where it feels like anything could happen. Josh and the others are fighting an uphill battle, one with little chance of survival, and we never forget that. Fortunately, we do get a nice resolution here, both on the relationship and military sides, so things come together to tie everything up at the end. I did find that while I enjoyed the intensity, and the world building continues to be great, after the first big fight scene, the other events seem like a lot of build up for not much payoff story-wise. Then the ending resolution with the men getting to safety and the wrap up with the aliens all happens comparatively quickly. So the pacing felt a little off here and some of the middle felt like it wasn’t quite having enough impact for the all the lead up.
We also get a nice conclusion for Josh and Xavier and see the men having their happily ever after. I enjoyed these guys together and it is clear how much they are determined to protect one another. But I do feel like the relationship is the weakest developed part of the story. In the first book, I think setting the stage necessarily took over some of the relationship building, so I was fine with that taking a back seat. But by the third book, I wanted more development overall. I feel like the guys don’t see much of each other, then jump really fast into an engagement. Yet they still have a lot of issues and spend much of this book in conflict, without a lot of time to see them work through things and come out the other side. I think the shorter format of the books, combined with the focus on the alien conflict might have contributed here, but I just felt like the relationship story arc is a little choppy and I wanted more focus on the romance side overall for the trilogy.
All that said, I really enjoyed these three books and found this series a lot of fun. I liked the way it is broken down into three shorter books, as I really feel like that upped the intensity. I flew through these, going from one to the other to find out what was next for Josh and his crew. So I think the books worked nicely in this format and it made for an exciting trilogy. If you are looking for something a bit different, particularly with a bit of a post-apocalyptic feel, definitely check out this trilogy.
