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V #16
Symphony of Terror
Matt Jones and his new family flee California to escape the Visitor tyranny and become caught up in stopping a Visitor plot to invade the free states.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1985
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January 18, 2016This book was, as far as I have been able to determine, the final novel based on the 1980-s version of the V sci-fi franchise. The series started the the novelization of the original mini-series and its sequel, and was published by Pinnacle Books. Pinnacle the published a number of original novels, some of which had connections to one degree or another with the V TV series. I read all the Pinnacle entries when they were originally released. Eventually, the V franchise ran out of gas and Pinnacle stopped publishing the stories. As I recall, I was disappointed but not surprised. But, a year or two later, Tor published a few more V books in 1987-88. I don't remember if I never saw these in stores or just didn't care about V any more by then, but I never read them. I think the Tor books were leftovers that Pinnacle just never published, as many authors carried over and the cover art, other than the publisher's symbol on the spines, is exactly the same. Oh well, now I've read them all. Yay!
This final entry in the series is a direct sequel to The Alien Swordmaster, one of the Pinnacle entries and is by the same author. One of the book's villains is also lifted from The Florida Project, another previous entry. I remember thinking that The Alien Swordmaster was one of the better entries in the series and this sequel is a worthy follow-up. That having been said, it's hamstrung by the overall structure of the V franchise, much like pretty much every other entry in the series. Another thing I wish was different was the cartoonishly evil antics of the Visitor leaders (hardly the only V novel with this problem). It seems like the authors are always going for Darth Vader, but they end up with Dark Helmet instead.
I ranted just a bit in my review of Below The Threshold that the Visitors seemed laughably incompetent throughout (same opinion as to why the 2000-s reboot didn't work too). The Visitors goal is really pretty simple - enslave/eat humans, also eat pretty much every other animal species on the planet, harvest all our water, along with any other natural resource they can use, and essentially leave Earth a used-up cinder. Simple enough, and they have the technology to make it happen. Even after humanity invents and deploys the Red Dust, the Visitors come up with an antidote easily enough and could have purged it eventually. But instead, they are continually coming up with needlessly convoluted plans with minimal payoff for the amount of work involved, and they get quite a few of their people killed among all the destruction when, yet again, a few scruffy humans with no support or training to speak of manage to foil one scheme after another. Maybe the Visitors just like to play with their food a bit too much or something.
Anyway, if you enjoyed V overall, you'll probably like this one. If you don't care about V, I wouldn't bother, at lease not without checking out the original miniseries, it's sequel, and The Alien Swordmaster first.
This final entry in the series is a direct sequel to The Alien Swordmaster, one of the Pinnacle entries and is by the same author. One of the book's villains is also lifted from The Florida Project, another previous entry. I remember thinking that The Alien Swordmaster was one of the better entries in the series and this sequel is a worthy follow-up. That having been said, it's hamstrung by the overall structure of the V franchise, much like pretty much every other entry in the series. Another thing I wish was different was the cartoonishly evil antics of the Visitor leaders (hardly the only V novel with this problem). It seems like the authors are always going for Darth Vader, but they end up with Dark Helmet instead.
I ranted just a bit in my review of Below The Threshold that the Visitors seemed laughably incompetent throughout (same opinion as to why the 2000-s reboot didn't work too). The Visitors goal is really pretty simple - enslave/eat humans, also eat pretty much every other animal species on the planet, harvest all our water, along with any other natural resource they can use, and essentially leave Earth a used-up cinder. Simple enough, and they have the technology to make it happen. Even after humanity invents and deploys the Red Dust, the Visitors come up with an antidote easily enough and could have purged it eventually. But instead, they are continually coming up with needlessly convoluted plans with minimal payoff for the amount of work involved, and they get quite a few of their people killed among all the destruction when, yet again, a few scruffy humans with no support or training to speak of manage to foil one scheme after another. Maybe the Visitors just like to play with their food a bit too much or something.
Anyway, if you enjoyed V overall, you'll probably like this one. If you don't care about V, I wouldn't bother, at lease not without checking out the original miniseries, it's sequel, and The Alien Swordmaster first.
December 30, 2021
It was better when I read it in the 80's. Some weak writing and terrible dialogue stand out now.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews