Book Review - Conquest

Conquest

Author: John Connolly &  Jennifer Ridyard

Series: The Chronicles of the Invaders #1

Genres: Dystopian, Aliens | Young Adult

Release Date: August 28th 2014

Publishers: Headline

No. Pages: 448

Source: Won

Rating: 

Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

The Earth has been invaded by the Illyri, a beautiful, civilized, yet ruthless alien race. Humanity has been conquered, but still it fights the invaders. The Resistance grows stronger, for it is the young people of Earth who are best equipped to battle the Illyri.

Syl Hellais, conceived among the stars, is the oldest alien child on Earth, the first to reach sixteen years of age. Her father rules the planet. Her future is assured. And Syl has hidden gifts, powers that even she does yet fully understand.

But all is not as it seems. The Illyri are at war among themselves, and the sinister Nairene Sisterhood has arrived on Earth, hungry for new blood. When Syl helps a pair of young Resistance fighters to escape execution, she finds herself sentenced to death, pursued by her own kind, and risks breaking the greatest taboo of her race by falling in love with a human.

Now the hunter has become the hunted, the predator become prey.

And as Syl is about to learn, the real invasion has not yet even begun

Conquest was the first book I won on Goodreads, and I was so stupidly happy to start reading it. I'm not going to lie, I had completely forgot not only about entering the contest but what the book was about, but after a quick re-read of the summary I was looking forward to it. Then I started it, and I'll be honest with you, I didn't really click with it straight away. This book is nearly 500 pages, and for the first 100 pages I was close to putting it down and forgetting about it. However in the summary on goodreads it's regarded as a book for fans of The 5th Wave and I Am Number Four. Now I haven't read the Lorien Legacies but I do happen to be a big fan of The 5th Wave, so I thought I would give the book the benefit of the doubt and carry on with it. Well low and behold soon after contemplating it in my DNF pile, I became hooked.

Though this book has been compared to The 5th Wave, the one big difference you have between the two is one is about a young girls survival in a world that's recently been invaded by alien, while this book we get to see it mainly from the aliens having the majority of the dialogue coming from the Illyri which is really refreshing.  As far as character's in the book go we have a lot of interesting one's but the one's that will stick in your mind the most for obvious reason's is the 16 year old Syl, the only child of the new ruler of earth and Paul,  not only a human but also part of the resistance.  Both characters, as well as the rest, are not only well written but relatable at times no matter the race.

I think as much as I love the characters, and I do, the one thing that took my break away about this book was the world they had built. Set in Edinburgh, we have the lovely Scottish highland and castles, one of which Syl lives in, nothing is left to the imagination, they set a picture in your mind perfectly and it sticks with you for a long time. Aside from that, the relationships in the story are so believable and slow building, you enjoy it , you feel along with the characters and in the end it leaves you wanting more. The best type of relationships always do.

Though this book written by the new comer, Jennifer Ridyard and name that people around the YA community have heard at lest once, John Connolly (author of The Book of Lost Things) is in the YA genre, it more than your typical book aimed for younger people.  It has mature themes (not content, it's pretty straight and narrow), the authors don't try to treat you like children by dumbing things down and overall it's just a really lovely, unique SCI FI book that could be enjoyed by people of all ages.