Book #92 of 2024: Scorpio
Scorpio (Frontlines: Evolution Book 1) by Marko Kloos.
Quick synopsis: Set on an Earth colony on a distant planet, aliens are intent on wiping out the humans and taking the planet for themselves. Alex and her dog Ash are two of only 150 humans left.
Brief opinion: This should have been the perfect book for me. The story sounds so good (a small number of people and a couple dogs trying to survive against an alien force), but I spent most of the book bored out of my skull.
Plot: On a distant planet named Scorpio, more and more humans are arriving to turn it into another planet for humanity. Then one day the "Lankies" (60+ feet tall aliens) show up. There is no communication between the two races, the Lankies just try to kill off humans whenever they find them on a planet.
Before the story started, most of the humans on the planet were killed by the Lankies. As the plot begins, it's eight years later and there are just a handful of humans left. Humans and a few military dogs.
Though Alex is young (a teenager), she works as one of the dog handlers, so she goes out with the military troops on missions. The first half of the book was just missions to try to find supplies while avoiding the Lankies.
Around the 50% point the humans' luck runs out and they're about to be overrun when the space marines arrive to fight the Lankies (they had had no idea any humans were left on the planet). The humans and few dogs are rescued.
The next 40% or so of the book was just Alex trying to get used to living on Earth again. Unsurprisingly, since this is a military sci-fi story, in the end Alex decides to join the armed forces to fight the Lankies.
Writing/editing: The technical writing and editing were both very good. But story-wise... I can't put my finger on why this story was so mind-numbingly boring. The missions had action in them, but the didn't hold my attention at all. Alex's time on Earth was even more boring. For some reason I did enjoy reading the ending (Alex in the recruiting office).
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: Other reviewers described this book as "the intro book to a series" and that's kind of what it felt like. It wasn't a book, it wasn't a story in its own right, it was just getting Alex into the military so the author could write the rest of the series.
Even after reading the whole book, I feel like I don't know Alex beyond "teenage girl". She felt more like a tool of the author than a real character.
I was really, really annoyed when Ash the dog utterly vanished at the 50% point of the book. He's on the cover! Then poof, gone, no more interaction with him and the story continued as if he had never existed. (This goes with Alex not feeling like a real person. She was Ash's handler, they worked together daily on the planet.)
Also I really, really didn't like "Lankies" as a name for the aliens. I get that they were tall/lanky, but still.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️ - Disliked. I suspect the series will get better after this introduction book, but I don't think I'll continue with it.