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Elite


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.

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