This book wasn't as epic as the other 2. It started off as thrilling, then normal and then ended with a boring cliffhanger. I mean I thought colt and the mean alien guy would have a cool battle but it didn't happen. The author missed a lot of key details. I was also waiting for colt to have shapeshifting abilities but that didn't happen either.

Colt McAlister and company continue to battle the forces of evil, personified here (as elsewhere in the trilogy) as shape-shifting aliens with nefarious and deadly plans for planet earth. See, portals keep opening up to allow these six-armed 'Thule' and their ships to cross over to earth from ... whatever crummy planet they currently call home. Wherever the Thule appear, they leave a swath of death and destruction in their wake. Humankind is woefully outgunned, despite the efforts of the super secret C.H.A.O.S. military academy and its crackerjack cadets, of both the human and (friendly) alien variety. Colt and his squad know the odds are against them,but they refuse to give up hope and are determined to put and end to this portal business--and these walking, talking, mind-reading, shape-shifting monsters--once and for all. But Colt is wrestling with an internal demon of his own ...

We pick up pretty much where Alienation left off. As we learned previously, Colt McAlister continues to be preternaturally strong, thanks to the Thule DNA that has bonded to his own. As you can imagine, his pseudo-Thule abilities come in pretty handy when fighting the big bugs and may in fact link him to an ancient prophecy predicting the fall of the Thule. Less handy are the rage-aholic fits that seem to overtake him with increasing frequency. It turns out that the same Thule blood that makes him super strong/fast/telepathic also makes him inclined to, erm, overreact in a rather violent fashion. Think The Incredible Hulk meets Harry Potter in The Order of the Phoenix, but with more forcible removal of alien limbs. I assume this is intended to be some sort of metaphor wherein Thule blood equals testosterone--the same hormone that causes muscle development in adolescent males also results in violent outbursts and anger management issues. Never having been an adolescent male myself, I can't say whether the metaphor works or whether it will resonate with young readers, but I expect that it would. At any rate, it allows Colt to wrestle with his identity, in a nature versus nurture sort of way, which is a theme of near universal application. Can he rise above his biological history, or is he doomed to be like the Thule? There is plenty of food for thought here, as well as food for discussion with young readers on topics of personal responsibility and choice in the face of inherited characteristics or behavior patterns modeled by parents or other authority figures.

This is a 'Christian' book, but the Christianity is fairly vague--there is no Gospel presentation or anything, which is probably for the best since that usually results in some seriously clunky writing. Really, the religious content boils down to Psalm 46:1, which Colt repeats to himself throughout the story. This is, I think, a pretty tasteful and effective way to include faith in the story. A hero's reliance on the strength and help of God in trouble is fairly organic; it doesn't beat the reader over the head with religion. Yet the underlying lesson--put your hope in God, both in facing outward hardship (evil, shape-shifting aliens) and wrestling with the sin that has an internal origin (your own alien-enhanced outbursts of anger)--is both important and surprisingly profound.

Less appealing is Colt's sudden apparent willingness to (maybe) kick the charming Lily to the curb. Granted, their relationship has never been clearly defined, and they've got a whole long-distance issue going on, but the previous two books spent a lot of time convincing us that Colt is downright smitten with Lily and the feeling is quite mutual. However, in this installment, we find him mooning over no fewer than two other girls at the academy--a girl-next-door type and the resident hottie on campus. Again, this may be a reflection of the author's familiarity with the adolescent male mind and its susceptibility to, um, visual stimulus. Regardless, I didn't love this development, and I thought it cast Colt in a less than admirable light.

In other news, we finally get to spend some quality time in the super-secret academy, where Colt and fellow cadets engage in all sorts of simulations and whatnot. Honestly, I could still have done with more super-secret academy stuff (they spend the last hundred pages off-campus--and even off-planet). A huge factor in the success of the Harry Potter series was its focus on the school--a setting universally accessible and familiar to students.

Then again, I will overlook many a shortcoming in a book wherein the protagonist rips the arm off an evil Nazi robot and beats it to death (well, 'death') with its own dismembered limb. That's some good writing, there.

Bottom line: Probably an entertaining and helpful book for young readers; adult readers are likely to be underwhelmed.

[Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”]

I rather wish that I had been able to reread the second book or at least look at it before starting this one. But I didn't, I just jumped in and started reading. Luckily I remembered a good deal and there was a little bit of reviewing done at the beginning. Although at some points I did get a bit confused or there was something that had happened in a past book and I didn't remember it, it usually wasn't that important and I wasn't completely lost or anything. So someone could pick up this book and just read it without reading the previous books, I wouldn't recommend it though. Reading the first books makes more sense :P

I was expecting a big battle for the ending of this series and in reality the big battle only lasted a page or so. Maybe the author simply wanted to tie it up quickly but the ending felt rushed and crammed while the rest of the book was detailed and well laid out. Not to be negative(I don't know what was going on in his life or head, but I do know that endings can be hard), but in my opinion this ending really didn't fit in with the rest of the book and wasn't the best, rather cliche and was possibly unrealistic...despite several deaths.

Now that I'm done with that, this book was a good and enjoyable book. Although the whole book wasn't battle and there were only five or so battle scenes I did feel the excitement and thrill of adventure in every page. I adore how there is so much super hero/comic book as a big part of the story line. Well that and the alien thing too. It makes this series unique and very interesting! This is the final book where the bad guy is taken down and the hero triumphs. But before that there is the terror of the enemy's final strike, when it will come and the hurry to get prepared as much as possible before that final battle. Colt is doubting if he'll be able to do much against the Thule attack and what his role will be as the Betrayer...and how many people will be lost before all the pain and attacks stop.

Overall, my only problem with this book was that the ending felt off, I really enjoyed and flew through the rest of this book. The plot was interesting and almost every chapter ended making me want to continue on. I would recommend this book to tweens and teens who enjoy science fiction, aliens and a good adventure with a true hero :)

This book had some wonderful characters that seemed to come off the page and into real life. I really liked the three main characters, they weren't perfect but had some great qualities and morals. They were unique and I really liked them, they were what had stood out the most from when I had read the other two books. There were some other good ones and overall the characters were nicely done :)
Content wise:Injuries, deaths, a few fighting and battles, aliens, lies and deception. And a couple brief discussions/thoughts about a girl or dating. 1-3 cheek kisses.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher and the views I've expressed are my own.

Jon S. Lewis- Domination
277 pages

Domination fit well as the conclusion to this series. Its pace felt better to me than the other two, and its ending is satisfying. Sure it would be nice to hear more from CHAOS, but I'm ok with where we left things.

Colt really came into his own here. You really get to see him round out as a character. Even though he is still young, he really starts to decide who he is and what his values are.

Dani was still a little disappointing to me, but she was better in Domination. I would have been happier to see more character progression from her. It almost feels like she was most put to the side and forgotten about after the first book.

Oz was lack luster in this one. The changes and trials I was expecting just weren't there. It bothered me quite a bit, but I still like him as a character. I felt like more could have been done with him in this book.

The hardest thing to deal with in this book was the resolution of the major ark. There was an awful lot of buildup and then it just... ends. More time should have been put into that resolution.

All in all I like the book and the series, and I would be very happy if at some point another book was released!

Rating:
♥♥♥♥

For more reviews, click here!

At first it didn't get my attention at all. And as it goes on more characters get in too and somehow I didn't like it. But the reason the I'm going to give 2stars is because I like how represented the friendship and how it ends the book. I only recommend if u looking for something science fiction.

At first it didn't get my attention at all. And as it goes on more characters get in too and somehow I didn't like it. But the reason the I'm going to give 2stars is because I like how represented the friendship and how it ends the book. I only recommend if u looking for something science fiction.

I really enjoyed reading this trilogy. Definitely a fun read for young teens who really like sci-fi alien stories. Highly recommend, Clean reads and full of action and adventure. This would definitely be a great read for any age.

Wonderful, wonderful book, great ending to the series, and it was great to see the all characters again! Loved it!

I liked this third book in the trilogy, but it didn't hold my attention in the same way the others did. The character building was good, but partly lost in the intense action sequences.