Alienation by Jon S. Lewis

From a perfect life to pure chaos, that is Colt McAlister has been dealt. Shortly after his 16^th birthday his parents were both killed in a car crash. Just it wasn’t any random accident, no it was a hit and run target mission put on by aliens. Since then Colt has moved to Arizona to live with his Grandfather Murdoch, who is a famous -if only in comic form- hero. In Invasion, book one of the CHAOS series, we learned of Colt’s family history with a secret government branch that focuses on protecting earth from aliens forces who are planning on taking over earth. Now it is Colt’s turn to continue the family legacy and join CHOAS Academy with his old friend Danielle Salazar and his new friend Oz Romero. As a team they must learn everything they can before the Thule aliens invade.   
As if this wasn’t enough Colt is constantly in the cross hairs of a master assassin. Watching your back isn’t good enough when the hunter is a skin changer.

I when I picked Alienation up I had just finished two fairly large books, one 500 pages another 400 and was happy to see that Alienation was a grand total of only 274 pages. When more and more authors are going for long 400-800 page books I started to wonder, can an author create a gripping book in so few pages? Well, Jon S. Lewis did it.
We start Alienation where Invasion left off. Colt is living with his grandfather getting ready to leave for CHAOS-Central Headquarters Against the Occult and Supernatural-training.

I really got to know Colt through Alienation. He learns so many things about himself in the book, some good and some not so good things. We see how he is willing to stand up for what he thinks is right and protect those he cares about. He also reacts the same as any other human would, making him more then just a ‘cool’ character, which he is.
Same with Danielle, she doesn’t get enough credit in my opinion. Smart, friendly and a pro-hacker I just loved watching her take over and help Colt as he was going through so much stress, not to mention the death threats.
Now what are we missing in this team? Yep, the muscle in the group. That is covered by Oz, son of CHAOS director Lobo, has grown up in the alien world and knows how to fight. He is a great character that I truly hope will get more of the spot light in the next edition of CHAOS.

We didn’t get to see any alien planets this time but there were gadgets aplenty to make up for it.
I was thrilled with how this book turned out.
Another really cool this is a short 6 page comic that stands in as a prolog. I think that was one of my favorite parts.
So much is packed into such a small book, and the fact that it is small and can be read in a few hours is great. 

A
Thanks to Booksneeze for giving me this review copy.

Invasion by J.S. Lewis

First off I would like to thank Cson for giving me this book to review.

Colt is the California poster boy; he surfs, plays guitar, video gamer, he's the popular kid at school. When his family goes to D.C. for vacation Colt has the chance to participate in a military training center "fun" day for students, invitation only. When he gets home his life quickly changes when a terrible accident happens, making him move in with his grandpa. Which leads to him getting thrown into a world of aliens, adventure, mind control and danger.

Okay, I'll admit it. Normally I'm not that big into Sci-Fi. I have not seen a full show of Star Trek, haven't read a single Superman comic, I don't watch the sky for UFOs or anything like that. Therefore, when I got this book I was ready to learn of new worlds like I never have.

The first 50 or so pages were wonderful, fresh plot, action, mystery, discovery, humor, it was all there. Then the plot took a turn I didn't care for. Invasion turned into a copy of multiple plots I've read, just with Sci-Fi twists.

Colt as a character wasn't as well developed as I would have liked. We did get into his personal life and feelings but I never felt like I knew him. The same with Lily, Dani, and Oz, I loved the characters just never connected with them.
Now I'll give Jon points, he came up with a creative way so that we knew more than Colt through part of the book. I thought it was fun knowing more than the main character. He came up with some cool creatures and worlds that I can't wait to visit in the next book. Lewis also had the teen humor down to a tea, making the book tons of fun to read. He had short chapters so I felt like I was making a lot of progress while I read and I love the fact that Lewis used his book to teach that girls and guys can just be friends, not boyfriend/girlfriend.

This book was realistic enough to have me wishing I could go to the store and get the Phantom Flyer and the Agents of Chaos comic book, yet Sci-Fi enough to make it a great "get-a-way" book to relax with. I look forward to the next book in the series; Jon S. Lewis just needs to work on plot and character development for me to love his series.

B