Mirror Slide Junction: Kindle Spotlight -- SECTOR 64: Ambush

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Kindle Spotlight -- SECTOR 64: Ambush

Today we have SECTOR 64: Ambush by Dean M. Cole. Is it worth reading? Let's find out.

The story centers around Air Force pilots Jake Giard and his friend Vic as they carry out a training exercise one night. Suddenly, they encounter a UFO which disables Vic's fighter craft. The plane crashes and the strange object disappears. Jake, believing his friend to be dead, lands the plane and is immediately arrested by MPs. He is interrogated and then released, whereupon he returns to his girlfriend and fellow pilot Sandy. Things seem bleak until Jake gets a call from his old friend Richard who asks to meet with him. Richard then takes him into a secret government facility and reunites him with Vic who explains how he survived his encounter.

As it turns out, the UFO belongs to a race of aliens called the Argonians who look exactly like humans. There's a reason for that which I won't spoil here. Anyway, the Argonians have been secretly working with mankind for decades to prepare us for inclusion in the greater galactic community, and the incident with Vic's fighter was just an unfortunate accident. They're actually a very peaceful race.

Sadly, the Argonians have an ancient enemy in the reptilian, warlike Zoxyth who discover the existence of Earth and decide to pay humanity a visit. They show up in massive ships and begin wiping out our major cities one by one. But mankind is not entirely defenseless against this threat; they've got experimental Argonian fighters on hand to respond in kind. Nevertheless, the might of the Zoxyth fleet might just be insurmountable. Can Jake and his friends fight off this invasion without losing Earth (or their lives) in the process?

For the most part, I enjoyed SECTOR 64: Ambush. It's pretty much a present-day Independence Day (sans Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum), and was fun to watch the puny humans fight back against their extraterrestrial adversaries. It's an engaging thrill ride from start to finish, and I appreciated all the Air Force research which went into crafting this narrative. The action scenes in particular are very well done.

However, the same cannot be said for the dialogue which gets very corny. I frequently cringed as I read the exchanges between the characters. The dialogue just doesn't feel realistic.

Still, it doesn't bring down the story too much. Give SECTOR 64: Ambush a try.