Reviewed by Riley
About Alien Resistance
In a bleak future where government systems are breaking down and poverty and violence reign, Madison Johnson is about to qualify as a doctor, after years of study and backbreaking work, in order to keep the promise she made to her dying sister, only to have an arrogant alien take over the hospital and decree that she would no longer be allowed to practice medicine. Hassled by the resistance group that’s trying to recruit her and exhausted from working impossible hours, Madison struggles to convince the disturbingly sexy alien, who always watches her, to let her be a doctor. As she and Viglar grows closer, Madison worries that she’s falling in love with one of the aliens who caused her brother’s disappearance—an alien who does not know how to love…
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Review of Alien Resistance
Alien Resistance takes place on an earth conquered by green-skinned alien invaders. Let’s stop there and get the serious part of my review out of the way. The blurb says “In a bleak future where government systems are breaking down and poverty and violence reign”. Why are government systems breaking down? Because this seems to have left earth ripe for the picking. One of the things that comes up is that in the future earth of Alien Resistance, doctors are spending fewer years studying to be a doctor than they had in the past. Along with the poverty and violence, I thought this was one of the most disturbing suppositions in the book, as I would assume it is part of an overall trend, fictionally speaking. But the reason it is disturbing is because I see similar things happening in our world now. That is really not a subject for a book review blog, but it is one of the things that made me connect with this book.
But let’s switch to the lighter side of the book. Alien Resistance is a romance, full of humor and quite a few heartwarmers. One of the conquerors, Viglar, faces off against one of the conquered, Madison. Much to Viglar’s frustration and the reader’s enjoyment, Madison refused to acknowledge being conquered. In the meantime, the conquerors, while quick to enforce their absolute dominion, are also not immune to harsher side of life on earth and are working to improve it. Aliens on earth is a scifi trope that always intrigues me and this green, hard-bodied alien domination is a fun interpretation of it.
The Zyrgin are supposed to be intelligent and have invested effort into studying humans. But no matter how much he may have studied humans, Viglar often does not understand what Madison says, often leading to humor. As Madison said, “It’s a saying, and how come an intelligent guy like you thought a human could have kittens?”
This alien ignorance of humanity carries over into perceiving human emotions and customs. Which was just a frustrating for me as a reader as it was for Madison as a character. Then again, maybe those aliens are not that ignorant after all, just extremely stubborn and see no reason to get along with the puny humans – they are the conquerors. They do not have to be nice at all.
Then, all of a sudden, Viglar throws in something that belies this stubbornness by throwing in a Star Wars reference at a completely appropriate time.
Madison hid a smile against his chest. His earnestness was rather endearing. “I will seduce you to the dark side.”
“The force is strong in this one. You will not seduce him to the dark side.”
Madison nearly fell off the couch. She stared at him with her mouth inelegantly open. “How on earth do you know Star Wars?”
Madison is often stunned by Viglar’s intelligence, and in this case, wit. I love these little bits of interactions between Madison and Viglar.
The fact is, the Viglar and his kind are intractable, dominating aliens who do not hesitate to use violence to bring humanity in line. This attitude appears to conflict with their apparent altruistic efforts to help the under-privileged humans by building hospitals and orphanages and who know what else? What is their end-game? Â I found my lack of understanding of Zyrgin motives a bit distracting from time to time. Â But I did not need that understanding to appreciate the story of Madison and Viglar.
Alien Resistance is the first book in the Zyrgin Warrior series that I have read, so I can assure you it stands on its own. While reading books 1-3 might give a little additional insight into some of the less important characters, it is not necessary to enjoy book 4. If you like a hardheaded alien hero, a headstrong human heroine combined with heart and humor, I recommend Alien Resistance.
The author provided a copy of her book so that I could bring you this honest review.
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