Book Reviews: Dave vs. The Monsters: Resistance

Dave vs. The Monsters: Resistance
by John Birmingham

Often second books in a trilogy are a let down. Resistance is not a bad book, but the middle of stories are rarely are exciting as introductions or as satisfying as endings. To briefly recap the first book, parts of the United States and other places have been invaded by monstrous insectoid/ogrish looking creatures who have either lived in the planet's interior or are denizens of an alternate dimension that has intruded upon our own.

 

The aliens always reach our world by tunneling upwards. The aliens remember humanity as frightened scared cattle. We don't remember them at all, although they could be the inspiration for some old legends. 

Although most of these creatures are more than a match for a full grown man, their technology is at Dark Age levels. After the hero, Dave Hooper, defeats their champion, the aliens are massacred by human air weapons and ground artillery. The aliens have no words to express what is happening to them. 

The aliens are shocked at what they saw as treachery by Dave; the deal was that that particular alien army could return to the underworld without further bloodshed. The US military was not party to the deal that Dave made and wouldn't have lived up to it if it had been. Dave was initially upset about that.

In Resistance, Dave has gone Hollywood. Dave spends his time partying with Hollywood starlets, eating, drinking, and copulating with said starlets and other female members of the jet set.

Dave already has super strength, inhuman metabolism, speed, and the ability to communicate with the aliens. Dave has noticed other changes. 

Dave likes some of these alterations, such as being sexually irresistible to any (presumably unrelated) woman within 1000 yards and getting his hair and sixpack back.

Other changes, like Dave's ability to seemingly blink out of existence and reappear elsewhere with little if any time elapsed are worrying to Dave's military handlers. 

Dave is a useful weapon but if a weapon can't be controlled then ultimately it's no good. No one knows Dave's limits. The aliens have decided to take a different approach. They are nonplussed by the human technological leap forward and shocked to learn that Dave is not the human leader. To learn more about human society, psychology, and physiology, the aliens kidnap humans and interrogate or assimilate them. Humans don't survive either process.

Dave still lacks maturity. Dave is not a team player. Dave is a jerk more concerned about whether Brad Pitt or Bruce Willis should play him in a movie than he is about helping people. Alien society has its own divisions. 

There are plenty of set ups and double crosses as many powerbrokers, human and otherwise, realize that Dave is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen drawer. Dave's ego can interfere when he tries to do the right thing. This took longer to read than it should have because of work obligations. Resistance kept me interested in the conclusion.