Strike- ♥♥♥♥

D.J. MacHale- Strike

The beginning of this books held most of the same intensity that Storm finished with. Although, I will say when Tucker woke up in the Retro prison my first thought was, “How many times can the same people end up in a prison camp…” It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I get why they had to be in the camps every time, it just seems like a lot of time in prison!

There was no shock that Granger and Feit live throughout the book. It still seems like they shouldn’t have lived through so much, and I’m kinda mad they both did. The medicine here always sat with me wrong. After the big reveal at the end it made much more sense, but I just didn’t like it. Medicine that can heal you from anything short of death and make you good as new again? It’s just too… easy.

I thought the way we found Kent was kind of fitting, and I have to say… he’s grown on me. I was glad he was as ok as he could be. Bova was a special brand of asshole, and I was glad to see the fate he was dealt. Anyway, Kent still had his moments throughout the book that made me want to smack him, but for the most part he has turned into a much better person.

I was unbelievably happy when Tori showed up on the roof. She has grown on me too. I think a lot of my reaction to Tori being alive was tied into Tucker. As annoying as he is, I like the kid. Tori is still pretty abrasive, but she grew into it. It suits her now instead of making her just seem awful.

Oliva is alive. That medicine again. Don’t get me wrong, I was really sad when she died, but I still don’t like how often people pretty much come back from the dead in this series. I liked seeing her more in control. She made a good solider. It was also nice to have an explanation for all her personality swings. Some of it was needed to do her job, some of it was trying to retain who she was, and some of it was because she cared about their group and wanted to help. I like Oliva a hell of a lot more than ever before.

Ok, so the time travel stuff. I would like to say that I am bad a science. I respect it, but I suck at it. To me, the atomic bomb theory sounded like it could make some sense (Ok, I know that time travel isn’t a thing, I meant as far as explanations go). The different time lines created gets a little confusing, but does make sense… If you don’t think about it too much. I like this a hell of a lot more than the idea of a straight civil war.

This book raised a lot of questions for me personally on morality. I have always been pretty anti-war just because killing people doesn’t solve anything. Tori and Tucker also bring this up, so it was kind of interesting to be having this inner debate with myself and read about them having the debate with each other. The Retros wanted to wipe out the entire world so they could repopulate it. That makes them awful, but then you think about it… They were at that point because 300 years before no one would be more careful with the resources. So really, both sides are talking about mass losses. One side was just much more direct about it

I still sided with Sylo. How could you not, but then I got to thinking. Wiping out the Retros is just as bad as what the Retros are doing. It was really a huge mess for me emotionally. All of this is why I think the ending is so good.

I was surpised to find I had started to like Granger. I’m not sure when that started, but it was there by the end. I am a little curious as to how he fared in his own timeline. I imagine he would be one of the driving forced to get the world back together again. Would have like to see that.

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While the end of the book was getting closer and closer I was getting concerned with how it would all end. It looked like Sylo would win, but if they did then what? It just didn’t seem like there was any good way to end the book (and the series). MacHale surprised me though. Sending them back to the date of the initial tests was kind of awesome. While the timeline they came from was still going to be struggling, the kids had a chance to finish what they started. I loved the idea of them playing the stock market to get the money together to create their own Sylo. It was an equally nice touch that they were going to employ themselves to take over the company. The whole this was very sweet.

I get why they couldn’t do anything to Feit for crimes he hadn’t yet committed, but I was still annoyed he was let go to live freely. He had been too ruthless for me to be ok with that. I’m glad that Kent and Olive didn’t settle down together. That would have felt much too forced after everything that happened. The same reasons why I am glad Tori and Tucker did settle down together. Overall, I’m happy with this book and the end of this series. I just wish the first two books lived up to this one.