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3.0 out of 5 stars
enjoyable action-adventure, November 14, 2010
This review is from: Distortion Offensive (Outlanders) (Mass Market Paperback)
When strange seafood triggers a series of existential visions, the Cerberus team find themselves facing a threat to the very nature of reality. The Ontic Library, undersea storehouse of the rules that govern reality, has been breached by their old enemy, the alien Ullikummis. Luckily Brigid is an archivist, at home with data - but tapping into the data that forms the entire universe and evicting a powerful alien mind will be like nothing she's ever tried before. And there are other, more physical threats in the library too...
Distortion Offensive is a decent action-adventure, but given its intriguing premise, could have been a lot more. The potential consequences of any damage to the Ontic Library - the unravelling of reality itself - are much discussed, but never actually come to pass. Possibly there will be consequences in later books, but damage to the rules governing the universe is such an interesting idea that raising and then dropping it makes this adventure seem rather anti-climactic.
However, for the dedicated fan, there's the usual mix of action, technology and exploration of dangerous environments, and some interesting characters come back into the story. An enjoyable read, but maybe not a great one.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
How did these illegal aliens get into our future?!, July 15, 2011
This review is from: Distortion Offensive (Outlanders) (Mass Market Paperback)
Ullikummis, an outcast of the powerful alien Annunaki who seek to claim the future-devastated world of Earth promises humanity Utopia through his selected chosen few cult leaders. Or rather his version of Utopia, that long-suffering world under his royal sway and not that of his malevolent warring relatives who form the backdrop to this saga by the excellent James Axler.
`OUTLANDERS: DISTORTION OFFENSIVE' takes up the story from the last novel `Oblivion Stone' where the hulking stone-hewn Ullikummis was apparently confronted in his plans of terrestrial conquest and defeated by the Outlanders from their secret Cerberus base preserving some of the little high technology left on Earth along with useful Annunaki devices they've acquired over the years.
The new team including Kane, Brigid Baptiste and a new thuggish ally called Grant are thrown into action when a new threat to the survival of humanity seems to originate in the oceans and they realise that not just the survival of the planet but reality itself might be at stake.
Meanwhile the cultists are busily at work finding converts, gathering information and eliminating anyone who gets in their way. There's a new god in town, the converts preach, and He will bring a new order to everything against all the old gods of before.
Discovering the Annunaki's supreme `Ontic Library' of knowledge in a deep ocean abyssal the Cerberus rebels find themselves battling Ullikummis' genetically engineered minions and striving to keep the integrity of their reality itself intact as Brigid Baptiste mentally interfaces with the massively powerful computer at the heart of the complex and realises to her awe and fear just how mighty the hold of the Annunaki is.
This is a fast-paced and effective novel, with some superb action sequences and a brilliantly original take on the computer idea - it's a biocomputer and its information is stored genetically, actually influencing the future biosphere itself. The menace of Ullikummis is intensely powerful, as is his remote, detached and frightening indifference to the sufferings and struggles of the humans opposing him. There will be no easy victories for them against opponents such as him. The fact that he himself is a rebel and condemned criminal among his own people makes the mix even more fun, teeter-totteringly disorienting and surprisingly uncertain.
That said, anyone unfamiliar with the complicated background of the novel series may find themselves lost - a glossary of characters and précis of important past events or timeline would greatly improve the clarity of the overall story for the curious casual or first-time reader.
There are a couple of minor gaffes too - the fearsome guardian octopi or squid that operate as a twin team above the sub-sea Ontic Library complex would never co-operate the way they are described to even if genetically engineered or mentally controlled - squids and octopi are as territorial as any predator. Part of that complex is described as being formed of an octopus skeleton - of course creatures of those species' are all invertebrates. There are limits to telepathy even in science fiction against fundamental biological instinct. They're minor flaws but the editors of the series should pick such errors up.
James Axler is undeniably skilful at constructing an epic sci-fi saga on a grand scale. There's forethought and planning here. Each new novel brings surprises and neither heroes or villains do quite what we expect them to. Axler pulls off what for me is a difficult trick - convincing me to shell out for the next and the next to see what he does next.
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