H.A.L.F.: The Deep Beneath by Natalie Wright
Publisher: Boadicea
Genre: Action/Adventure, Contemporary, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Full Length (292 pgs)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by AloeH.A.L.F. 9 has taken his first breath of desert air and his first steps in the human world. Created to be a weapon, he proved too powerful for his makers and has lived a sedated life hidden from humans. But H.A.L.F. 9 has escaped the underground lab he called home, and the sedation has worn off. He has never been more alive. More powerful. Or more deadly.
Erika Holt longs to ride her motorcycle east until pavement meets shore. She bides her time until graduation when she’ll say adios to the trailer she shares with her alcoholic mother and memories of her dead father. But a typical night in the desert with friends thrusts Erika into a situation more dangerous than she ever imagined.
Circumstances push the two together, and each must make a fateful choice. Will Erika help H.A.L.F. 9 despite her “don’t get involved” rule? And will H.A.L.F. 9 let Erika live even though he was trained to kill?
The two may need to forget their rules and training and if either is to survive the dangers of the deep beneath them.
Be careful how far out in the desert you go. There are rattlesnakes, scorpions, cactus that shoots its needles, illegal aliens and worse. When the two boys and the girl go out to talk and drink some juice drinks, they only wanted to watch the stars. What happened was definitely on the worse side…
This story is about secret government projects, experiments, death, and the potential of war. At this point, it’s an imaginary war, but not in this scientist’s head. She’s preparing the ultimate weapon to fight aliens. After all, everyone knows about aliens and the crash in Roswell. What you don’t know is that she got some of their DNA.
Ms. Wright’s story maintains a good pace throughout the story. There’s extreme danger, odd encounters and an implacable enemy. When the kids are accosted in the desert, an odd being comes to their rescue. They are thankful, but they don’t trust him. And when the storm troopers show up, they don’t trust them either.
This is a new take on science fiction fantasies. This mad scientist is creating babies using the alien DNA and surrogate mothers. They raise the children without any emotion and try to bleed the human side dry.
The good characters are likeable; the bad ones are extremely ruthless. Yet, I still found myself drawn into the story and caring about them, even H.A.L.F. 9. He feels emotions but doesn’t know what to do with them. The teens are human and most likely be killed to keep them quiet. That doesn’t make you calm or well behaved. But when you’re isolated and can’t talk to your friends you can’t solve things very well either.
The ending was not what I expected and I’m not quite sure I liked it. However, this is the first book in the series and the author has set me up nicely with an interest in the next book. I bet that was her goal.
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