Book "Midnight City" by J.Barton Mitchell

About the Book: Lord of the Flies meets War of the Worlds in J. Barton Mitchell's alien-invaded post-apocalyptic world where two teens and a young girl with amazing powers must stop the aliens' mysterious plan. Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Assembly. The human adult population is gone, having succumbed to the Tone---a powerful, telepathic super-signal broadcast across the planet that reduces them to a state of complete subservience. But the Tone has one critical flaw. It only affects the population once they reach their early twenties, which means that there is one group left to resist: Children. Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an infamous treasure seeker with a price on her head. It's not long before Holt bags his prey, but their instant connection isn't something he bargained for. Neither is the Assembly ship that crash-lands near them shortly after. Venturing inside, Holt finds a young girl who remembers nothing except her name: Zoey. As the three make their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City, they encounter young freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts, pirates, feuding alien armies, and the amazing powers that Zoey is beginning to exhibit. Powers that suggest she, as impossible as it seems, may just be the key to stopping the Assembly once and for all. Midnight City is the breathtaking first book of the Conquered Earth series.

About the Author: J. Barton Mitchell is a writer and creator of speculative fiction, as well as a photographer, traveler, reader, and occasional masked crime fighter. He is the author of the young adult science fiction series Conquered Earth.

My Review: This is a very well written book, with an intense story on loyalty, friendship, love and survival. The plot is quite simple and will keep you hooked from the first page to the end. Our hero is called Holt. He is a bounty hunter that has as his companion his dog named Max, and the currently highest prize is Mira Toombs, a treasurer seeker and freebooter. Earth was conquered eight years before by aliens and their domination is based on the transmission of a signal  that they broadcast all over called Tone, and make all humans on early twenties and over to be submissive to their call to unconditional servitude. But there are a few that are immune to the Tone, like Holt. Mira is almost succumbing to the signal, having just some more months before turning herself to the aliens. Holt captures Mira, and a strong connection between them develops almost instantly, but he fights hard not to fall for her. After capturing her, an alien ship crashes near them and when investigating it, Holt finds its only survivor, an eight years old young lady that can only remember her name, Zoye. But soon they learn that the whole alien force is seeking Zoey and they figure out that she must be very special to draw all that attention. The story develops in a very intense thriller and the end is very unpredictable and leaves that feeling that we want more and very soon! This might turn out to be a very interesting Hollywood movie. It has all ingredients for an instant success blockbuster!

I recommend this book to the permanent library of all science-fiction lovers that wants to be entertained with a thriller story that will hook you from the beginning and you will read it on the edge of your chair. It took me around 13 hours to read the whole book. This book was written by J.Barton Mitchell and it was published by St. Martin's Griffin on October of 2012. Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

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