Skywake battlefield by Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell's Skywake Battlefield follows hard on the heels of Skywake Invasion and readers will be sucked into the vortex of tense action packed futuristic, sci-fi adventure as surely as our gaming team protagonists (the Ghost Reapers) themselves. With no reduction of intensity, Casey Henderson and her team of Skywake gamers find themselves thrown into the middle of a frightening battle after their abduction and delivery to the planet Hosin. The battle that they and other top-level gamers from Earth have been thrown into is between the brutal alien Red Eyes (the Arcturians) and the Bactu (The squids). The Arcturians have developed mindcontrol devices that have caused the rest of the human gamers to attack Bactu defences. Casey and her team must use their skill and complementary abilities to rescue themselves and ultimately the planet Hosin and the inhabitants- the gentle, ancient and wise Bacturians.
A host of futuristic weapons and systems of destruction are deployed: fighting is brutal. Casey has to develop leadership skills based on the ability to make the right choice in ultra-difficult split-second commando-style situations. Skywake Battlefield, as second book in the series, further develops the depiction of Casey as a leader who is growing towards her full possibilities. Skilfully, Russell circles back to Casey's father who was a war hero, killed in action as he peformed the job that he was trained to do...disarming mines in Afghanistan. Casey's father taught her about Flow...the ability to be in the moment when needed. When faced with terrifying moments, Casey learns to develop flow. Gradually her powers increase. She is backed by her team using their skills including hacking enemy sci-fi military equipment and infrastructure. Trapped on Hosin, they discover an ex-soldier from Earth who was captured many years ago and left by his commander and battalion. Gradually the purpose behind the whole inter-galactic battle emerges. The evil Arcturians are searching for the ancient Bacturian artefact called the psionic array which will enable them to have total control over the universe. Elements of the source were buried long ago when they built the ancient structures on earth eg. the pyramids and the statues on Easter Island- but the key is somewhere else on Earth...
Casey and her team must fight not only to save Hosin; the battle grows to saving the whole universe. Harsh choices have to be made where potential losses have to be weighed against gains. Casey learns from Private Ross and Lieutenant Dreyfus, real human soldiers, about battle and the choices that have to be made - harsh decisions that only true leaders can and must take. Casey has to face betrayal, the oily grooming of her brother by her nemesis Xander and the power of steely decision making. She has to discover the flow that a leader must acquire in order to lead in a world of combat and the dire consequences of weakness and indecision.
How dire her decisions will be, how hard the choices she will be forced to make remain to be seen in the next story which the reader is promised with the TO BE CONTINUED at the end of Skywake Battlefield.
Jamie Russell is a screenwriter as well as an author. The vividness of the visuals of the action scenes in both Skywake Invasion and Skywake Battlefield lend themselves to the screen just as surely as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was very quickly adapted to screen. In acknowledgements in the endpapers, Russell thanks everyone who has picked up a copy of his books for their children and grandchildren. Anyone who does should be thanked. These books are not only electrifying - at a deeper level they deliver a very solid moral message re war and general decision making for young people to think about.
Recommended for those who love sci-fi and gaming and those who haven't discovered it yet!
Themes: Sci fi, Gaming, Adventure, Teams, Loyalty, Leadership.
Wendy Jeffrey