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Author: J. Barton Mitchell
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Classification: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult
Release Date: Reprint- October 30, 2012
My Rating:
I really enjoyed reading it and I am looking forward to reading the next book.
Midnight City is the first book in the Conquered Earth Series by J. Barton Mitchell. I found out about this book through Goodreads. There was a drawing to win a copy of this book and a drawing to win an ARC of his second Conquered Earth book, The Severed Tower. I entered both drawings and won a copy of the second book.
So of course I bought the first book. I will not read and review a book out of order!
So I bought a copy of Midnight City on my Kindle, so I would have a good introduction to the world before reading and reviewing my First Reads book.
I REALLY enjoyed this book! It was action packed! Just starting reading the book, and there was already an action scene.
I really like how well Mr. Mitchell developed his characters. I was able to feel like I could relate to them in some way and I empathized with them.
I read this book in a few days, but it wasn't because I wanted to drag out reading it. In fact there were many places where I didn't want to put it down. But due to other parts of life I couldn't devour the entire book in one sitting.
This story is about an alien invasion that pretty much takes over Earth. The aliens land and release The Tone onto the citizens. The Tone seems to immediately take effect on most of the people. Now there are not really many adults over the age of twenty or twenty-one left.
I'm going to be honest and at the beginning I was getting a little confused by all of the different terms that he used to describe people and everything.
I really don't think I am giving too much of the story away, but here it is in case I am.
***The following part of the review may contain spoilers. If you don't want to risk the possibility of this book being ruined by spoilers, then stop reading.***
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In the first chapter we learn about the Tone, Heedless, Adjutant, the Menagerie, the Assembly. And these are just some of the things we learn about in this world.
But honestly, I did get everything sorted out and it does make a lot of sense to me. And I love the interesting world that Mr. Mitchell has created. (Sure it would be nicer without the Assembly getting control and attacking everyone, but then it would be less action packed and less interesting.)
So the Tone is the thing that the aliens have infected the people with. The Tone either will make a person become a Succumbed, meaning the Tone took full affect on the person, and that person is now under alien/assembly control. Once becoming Succumbed, the person will stop being themselves and walk in a slow uncontrolled motion towards the Presidium (which are Assembly bases).
People that are not affected by the Tone are called Heedless.
And we learn that the Forsaken, are the people that end up going crazy by the Tone.
We follow Heedless Holt and his best (and pretty much only) friend through his journey. He is being hunted by a group called the Menagerie. And he in turn is a bounty hunter, hunting a girl named Mira, that is wanted by a group in Midnight City.
We learn that Mira is a Freebooter, she collects artifacts that have basically magical powers from the Strange Lands.
They also come across a young girl Zoey. They take her with them on their journey to Midnight City, and find out that she is very special.
My favorite part and the thing that I find the most interesting is all the stuff that Mr. Mitchell has written about the Artifacts and all the stuff they can do. I find it enchanting. I think it is unique and I have really enjoyed reading about the different creations that Mira has made using the different artifacts. Love it!
And I find the Assembly to be interesting. I think something is definitely going on with them, since there appears to be three different groups of them.
And I am curious to find out what has happened to all the adults. Are they all dead? Are they just working and living in the Presidium with the Assembly telling them what to do?
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***END OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
This book is packed with action.
The ending did feel a little rushed, and I still had a lot of questions. So I am glad that I am able to go ahead and start reading The Severed Tower today!
I do recommend reading this book. I enjoyed it.
