XCOM 2: Resurrection

I'm a big X-com fan and found this to be a solid read for the series and an overall good Syfi book with a post-apocalypse feel.

XCOM2: Resurrection By Greg Keyes, is a video game tie-novel based on the “XCOM video game franchise”. taking place a few months prior to the events of XCOM 2 (the game). While small pockets of resistance continue to fight the aliens, most of the Earth’s population have given up and accepted the “protection” offered by the alien forces. These humans live mainly in New Cities these urban locales all look the same, and spew propaganda 24/7 about the dissidents and how they wish to destroy the shiny-happy place that has been created for humans. Outside of the New Cities are settlements where humans who haven’t yet accepted living in more contained cities reside, and it’s from these settlements that the propoganda gets its fuel rebels rescue humans who are frequently kidnapped from these settlements during alien raids. The aliens, however, show videos of their attacks on these settlements and spin it as dissidents attacking innocent humans who haven’t yet had the time to relocate. In this world, XCOM is long gone and the dissidents manage to scrounge by and survive as best they can. Amar Tan (KB to his squad mates) and his squad have been fighting the aliens for a year or more now, picking up new rookie recruits whenever possible from the settlements they visit for supplies and news. During a routine encounter with alien forces, they find a survivor who hints at a large secret related to XCOM — the location of a crashed alien ship that might give a fragmented XCOM staff (who are still alive) a chance to fight back against the aliens once again. Many of the original aliens are here in the story — Sectoids, Chrysallids, and even the much feared Snakeman is spot — and they’re just as devious as they were twenty years earlier. Tracking devices, routine patrols, and mind control are just some of the ways that the aliens not only keep the humans under control but also use to uncover dissidents. Who can Amar and his team trust when every person they encounter is a possible collaborator? And is the rumor of this crashed ship worth the loss of lives that will ultimately have to be paid to hunt for it? As an XCOM fan, I loved the book. It’s got all those elements that players enjoy — random encounters, uneven combat (human weapons versus alien tech), scientists and engineers doing their best to try and close the gap in tech, and a squad that the reader will come to know just as they do with their own squad in the game. It’s well-done and stands on its own, with no real experience with the games needed. But fans will be pleased with the many nods to the XCOM 1 game (as well as to the earlier 1990s games). All in all, XCOM 2: Resurrection managed to give me just what I needed. Author Greg Keyes has done his homework with the XCOM universe and delivered an origin-story that provides the sacrifices and the successes of the squad that helped ensure that XCOM will live again.

The book is awesome. It did leave me with a broken heart. Though, now that XCOM 2 (the game) is out, although I haven't finished the game yet, some details from the book seem to contradict a little with those mentioned in the game, but this might have been done on purpose.

It was clearly written for the release of the game. It isn't high quality science fiction. If you are an avid science fiction reader, you won't like it. However, if you enjoyed the XCOM games, you will appreciate this link from one game to another.

Great quality , delicate care of their product. Thank you!

I enjoyed the book a lot as I've been a xcom fanatic for 20 years. If I had never played the games it would not have been a good read. The book really seems supplemental to xcom 2 and that's about it. Cool story though.

I don't do games. However, I read the book and enjoyed every minute of it. I found it to be full of action and real human interactions. Greg Keyes is a master of prose. He never writes a book that is not worth reading.

The writer isn't exactly the best. Plenty of fragment sentence, grammar mistakes and the more time the author spends developing a character, the more you'll wish he hadn’t. And sometimes you'll have no clue where characters are, or what the scene looks like cause the author assumes you know what the place looks like. The book loves to say he and she, but you don't know what character the book's talking about because the paragraphs in general are poorly constructed and characters should be named instead when she in action sequences and there are two same gendered people. Also this book names characters before you know who they are and you'll get confused who this person is, to then say later, "Oh hey, I'm Billy Bob." Also, I don't think I've ever read a book with such a forced romance sub-plot. These two characters have zero chemistry. Why is there a terrible romance in my XCOM book?! The author does another terrible job of explaining what happens in action scenes to. I don't know where the battle is happening half the time, or where it leads to. When characters die, sometimes it's said that they obviously dead. Other times though you have no clue what the hell has happened to a character. Some guy dies to a chryssalid and unless you played the games, you have no idea that that person just died because the book never said so. I assumed he/she was dead, but for all I know the person could have been mortally wounded! The author does make good use of the source material and the battles, as well as some characters from Enemy Unknown, are the best parts of the book. The characters from Enemy Unknown are awesome and they make the book better since they're actually likeable. Though, since I'm a huge XCOM fan I can't help but say that I somewhat like it because it's a book about XCOM.