27 January 2019

Books: The Fall of Io by Wesley Chu (2019)


"When Ella Patel's mind was invaded by the Quasing alien, Io, she was dragged into the raging Prophus versus Genjix war. Despite her reservations, and Io's incompetence, the Prophus were determined to train her as an agent. It didn't go well. Expelled after just two years, Ella happily returned to con artistry, and bank robberies. But the Quasing war isn't done with them yet. The Genjix's plan to contact their homeworld has reached a critical stage, threatening all life on Earth. To complete the project they need Io's knowledge - and he's in Ella's head - so now they're both being hunted, again."

Much like the The Rise of Io, The Fall of Io is grand, goofy, action-adventure book that blends science fiction with thrills of old-fashion spies vs spies, with quick escapes and people doing sort-of magical things in pursuant of the goals of the plot (the mobilization of men and equipment seems to come together very fast here).

Wesley Chu remains great at creating interesting characters, with Ella being a wonderfully designed, complex, yet dumb heroine. A lot of her adventures seem overtly contradictory to survival when she is being perused both Genjix and the Prophus, but sometimes just watching blunder into her own issues is amusing.  Nice to see Roen back in action as well, as he remains my favorite character.

The further development of Io and her actions gets a back seat here, and the fighting between the alien and Ella becomes a bit repetitious and the book goes on way too long (both Shura and Roen’s team can’t seem to keep a handle on Ella, which seems rather odd considering the power both seem to have), but there is still plenty of humor and a lot of violence to get through to distract you from that fact.

While I faced walking pneumonia for the last week or so, I did complete this book in the last day, so it does have some great pacing. Which is good, because I’m so far behind in reading already for 2019.

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