Hays, along with his wife Lizbeth, is a senior agent for the Agency of Change. After the success of an important mission, they are called to meet with the President, and Elite named Hughes Jacklin. During this meeting, they are tasked with assisting in the most important mission of their career... destroying the human race!
On their ride home, the couple is attacked by a band of misfit humans. Narrowly escaping the humans, Hays plans to relax with his wife and two young daughters, but he is instead called to the popular Toyz store where a gruesome murder has taken place. While chasing a human suspect, Hays suffers a near fatal fall on the job and learns that he is not who he thinks he is. Suddenly shunned by every person he knows, Hays is forced to rediscover his identity and decide who to trust before the world changes forever.
The quality of Patterson's recent novels and the fact that he employs a co-author (Neil McMahon assists with this one) has come under considerable criticism lately. Despite these criticisms, I really enjoyed this book. I was ready to write this off as a ridiculous attempt at a futuristic thriller, but found that I couldn't stop reading it. Patterson's attention to a driving plot, really helps this story move along, but doesn't allow for much character development. Normally, this would cause me to find the characters one-dimensional, but in this futuristic setting, I get the feeling that these "robotic" characters add to the overall intention of the story. Hays sees many of his relationships explode before his eyes, but hardly seems to care. Overall, this is definitely not a masterpiece of literature, but is a fun way to spend the afternoon with a story from a master thriller writer.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2012, 13)
Really great review, Ethan! Good for you for keeping your mind open and not letting outside criticisms and first-guess feelings completely destroy the book for you ;) Sounds like an exciting read!
ReplyDeleteVivian @ Vivaciously, Vivian
I have to admit that I was ready to hate this one, but 200 pages in, I couldn't put it down. Thanks for reading!
DeletePatterson writes sci-fi mysteries now? Sweet! Excellent review. Thaks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHe's done some sci-fi stuff in the past. It is always nice when an author changes things up a bit.
Deleteseriously? patterson did sci fi in the past? which were those books? never heard of them :( generally liked everyone of his books that i had read....
ReplyDeleteHe has written novels with sci-fi elements. Check out "When The Wind Blows" and "The Lake House".
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