Jesse is sitting in History class one day
when everyone suddenly slumps over on their desks. He hears a strange voice in
his head: "I am Lord Vertenomous and I claim this planet in the name of
the Republic of Sanginia. You have been conquered by the
greatest beings in the known universe. It took ten seconds."
At first Jesse thinks he's gone crazy --
but realizes the invasion is real when he is unsuccessful in waking any of his
classmates and runs outside to discover that everyone else has fallen into the
same strange sleep. He is captured by the aliens and informed that he has been
saved because he is "superior product" who can hear the aliens'
telepathic messages. Jesse and several hundred other humans others who are also
capable of "hearing" are rounded up and made to be slaves to the
Republic. The aliens use mind power to inflict pain, read thoughts and kill.
Their control seems so complete everyone appears to have succumbed to fear and
obedience. But as time goes on, Jesses realizes that his telepathic abilities
are not limited to hearing the aliens – he finds himself seeing glimpses of
other people’s memories, entering people’s dreams, communicating with others
without speaking and even blocking the aliens’ access to his mind. When he notices
the aliens are shocked and nervous about his new found abilities, he realizes
that there might be a way to fight back after all. Jesse and some of his new
friends come up with an escape plan to find human rebels rumoured to be in Mexico.
From the title of this book, I was
expecting a funny read – and I did find myself laughing at some of the
conversations and comments made by Jesse – but most of the time, the mood was
more on the serious side. At times it felt grim, with the characters coming to
grips with the fact that their families and friends were dead and that they
might be living under the rule of the aliens forever. I liked how the book
alternated between the first person narration by Jesse and letters and a
personal log written by the alien Lord Vertenomous. The plot of the alien
invasion, capture and escape to find other rebels was quite predictable, but having
to put the two perspectives together to try to figure out what was going to
happen made the story more interesting. While this isn’t a non-stop thriller, the
book jumps into the alien invasion right away and there was enough suspense to
keep me reading. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a short, straightforward
sci-fi novel.
Is there ganna be a second book?