Elite by
Steven L. Kent, The Clone Rebellion #4
Earth 2514 A.D. Humans populate the six arms
of the Milky Way Galaxy. The oppressive Unified Authority controls Earth’s
colonies with a powerful military made up almost entirely of clones – until an
unstoppable alien force begins wiping them out.
Wayson Harris retired from the Marines after
thousands of his fellow clones were sent to their deaths in order to crush a
separatist uprising. But when he is recalled fro duty, Harris is forced to work
for the very men who betrayed him. As the U.A. struggles in the aftermath of
its partial destruction, and an advanced extra-terrestrial enemy closes in on
what remains of its colonies, Harris and his platoon are forced to make a
strand that could be their last.
Elite is the
fourth book in The Clone Rebellion series written by Steven L. Kent. The Clone
Rebellion series is a deep space, high tech military Science Fiction story. Its
highly enjoyable, fast-paced, action filled and vastly entertaining. The first
book was released in 2006 by Ace in the US. Titan Books is bringing this series
to the UK and is releasing all the book so far in 2013, one new book per month!
With Elite
being already the fourth book in the series I think it will be quite hard to
not tell some of the events that happened in the first three books. Sorry in
advance if that might happen!
The third
book in The Clone Rebellion, Alliance, left this series quite on an open
ending. Wayson Harris, a special class of clone, a Liberator, managed to defeat
the Mogat uprising. Not without a cost though, the U.A. suffered many in their
clone force. With such an open ending anything could happen in Elite.
Furthermore Alliance left me with a good image of the character of Wayson and
how he was finding out that his free will might not be that free, or is it
really so? The clone aspect of the series is cool to read about. Being all
grown in “orphanages” on Earth the clones are all identical, genetic wise, and
they posses the death reflex, which is an action that as soon as the clone
finds out he is a clone a chemical is
released killing him instantly. Now this isn’t the case for Wayson, him being a
Liberator and all, he knows he is clone, accepted this but he still find
himself standing in front of choices that he finds hard to make.
In the
beginning of Elite I really thought that Wayson had final broke free and I
think he thought so himself as well. However with so many causalities in the
battle to destroy the Mogat separatists uprising, the Unified Authority have
decreed a new act, the Elite act where retired soldier are called into
conscription once again. And yes, Wayson finds himself sitting on a plane to
the battle frontier once again. But what battle has to be fought now? With the
Mogat home planet being destroyed? I was actually wondering when I might expect
a visit of them. Well hold on! Aliens. What is a good Science Fiction book
without some xenos? Well there you have
it, a new possible direction in which this series can go. And just as the
Unified Authority thought they were done with everything they find themselves
again facing an unexpected threat. Possibly bigger than the Mogats
In the
beginning of Elite, Wayson is living the normal civilian life, fighting in Sad
Sam’s Palace and just enjoying his every day things. However this soon will be
turned upside down as he finds himself on route the planet of New Copenhagen, a
small planet near Earth that is the next one on the list to be taken over by
the aliens. The remainder of the story all takes place on New Copenhagen. Again
Wayson’s “partner in crime”, Ray Freeman isn’t far behind, they have build up
quite the extensive relationship between them and trust each other fully. These
two have a kind of chemistry between them that’s hard to describe but they both
have a dry sense of humor that in this whole military background really brings
certain episodes to life. Many of the other characters of that you read about
are mostly new there are some other officers that you knew already, although
with not having the focus on them explicitly they make up a great secondary
cast. And do I think Wayson might have a problem with authority? Hmmm….
Now onto the
new and cool part of the book, the aliens, the xenos, the Avatari. When I first
read that there would be aliens in this story, I did got quite eager because
they are just pretty cool. They can be made into horrendous creatures or more
laughable versions. What Steven L. Kent did with his introduction was very
special. There was already an encounter with them in Alliance but remained
quite obscure, this is further explained in Elite and is mainly the reason
Wayson finds himself there. When I read, how they conquer the planets,
surrounding them in a “sleeve” an ion curtain, that makes travel and
broadcasting impossible I thought this was pretty cool. Isolating a whole
planet and then taking it over. But this isn’t everything by far, the first
appearance is just amazing to read about. With the light that is being
accompanied by their entry, I should have guessed that they weren’t all what
they seemed to be up front. And well they aren’t. Like I mentioned above, the
U.A. soon starts calling them the Avatari, and I will leave it at that. They
are much more obscure then you and I would have thought. And even though the
ending seems like a bit of a conclusion, these higher lifeforces may still be
something to look out for.
Did I like
this new direction that Steven L. Kent ventured into, well if I may quote
Wayson “Specking! Yes” It’s great to see that each book introduces the reader
to a very engaging story featuring the clone Wayson. He is going through some
developments himself and each story addresses his character quite nicely. The
first three books put the emphasis on the Mogat Separatists and Wayson fighting
against them, but with that out of the picture, Elite offers a great new start
of a storyline. Wayson’s determination and dry humor make him a great character
to read about. Elite adds another stripe for me behinds Steven L. Kent name. I
can’t stress this enough, as soon as you pick up one of these books, you lost
in the blaze until it’s over. When you ‘re dealing with an unknown alien force,
you don’t fight fire with fire, but fire with nukes. The Clone Rebellion is military science-fiction at it’s
best.