The 5th Wave / Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave
(Fifth Wave #1)
by Rick Yancey

science fiction

copyright 2013
read in February 2015

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

alternatively, rated 4/10: bad but could be read

Two ratings ? Here's the way I see it:

The book is quite entertaining. Easy to read, interesting scenario, childishly simple plot. Does "childishly" mean, suitable for children ? After all, this book does appear to target young adults.

But no, this book is *not* suitable for young adults.

Death, violence, destruction and despair... Is that what you think teenagers and 20-somethings should be reading ? To me, the first two thirds of this book would drive any sensitive person to despair, disillusion and possibly suicide. The world is wiped out... what can we do... absolutely nothing.

Main characters witness their family being killed, directly and indirectly, by alien invaders. As an adult I don't enjoy reading this. As a child, I am glad that I read books with a more hopeful overall tone.

But wait ! you say, The good guys eventually fight back ! Too little, too late, too ridiculously unbelievable.

Have you read Battlefield Earth ? There are similarities... Aliens arrive, destroy nearly all of humanity. Battlefield starts with the *descendants* of civilised humanity, this removes the feeling of helpless despair. Battlefield and Wave have equally weak plots but Battlefield avoids the misery.

Good or bad ? Your choice. I prefer stupid positive over stupid negative.

Speaking of stupid... both books treat the alien invaders as being extremely stupid. Once the humans find their feet, they run intellectual rings around the aliens. What are the chances of a third invasion by the telephone sanitisers of the Hitchhikers Guide ?!

So. If you're an emotionally hardened adult and you can stand misery, I rate 5th Wave as "read to pass the time". If you're a young adult... Sure you could read it. But it's bad.

Oh, and for those who do read right to the end:

Apparently, the aliens have been studying humanity for thousands of years. So why did they wait till now to invade ? Why wait till humanity has invented guns and bombs ?! Wouldn't it have been simpler to arrange a bit of mass slaughter while we could only fight back with sticks and stones ?

Even better -- use those alien mind powers to encourage peace. So all of Earth is a peaceful paradise. So the people of Earth have no weapons available to fight back against the final alien invasions...

Stupid aliens.