This second book in the series was unusual in that it retold the same timeline of the first book (Breakers), but from the point of view of completely different characters. While it was eminently readable and enjoyable, I didn't really feel like it offered a more insightful view of the overall story being split up this way. Breakers focused more time on the plague part of the story, and less on the aliens, and Melt Down had the opposite emphasis. It did reveal a lot more about the aliens than Breakers did, and set us up well for the next book in the series. As with Breakers, we are introduced to a series of really great, fully fleshed out characters that grow and change as they are tested by the events happening around them. Ness was particularly interesting. The action is exciting and the worldbuilding is realistic and detailed. I cannot wait for our characters to converge and to see what happens next. Breakers is a very captivating series!Ray Chase's narration of the audiobook is spot-on fantastic. 3.5 stars, for overall skilled writing and pacing. Lets see. First what I liked.I like the way the author, whilst starting with a whole new set of characters back before the plague, managed to interweave some of the events and characters from the first book into this new story line adding some continuity and familiarity. For a bit of the second half of the story I did wonder if I wou bother with the next book but some of the things that occured in the epilog of this book hooked me to continue.What I haven't like in this book.The author has, rather than leave them as an enigma, in this book introduced us a little more to the aliens and I'm not sure there is a lot of consitency or purposeful development of them or their background. At one point we are expected to see them as evil with no purpose but to wipe out humanity and then later we are expected to see then as having altruistic motives and actually befriending humans who only recently wiped out their mothership and only way of leaving earth. For me this was almost a deal breaker and I'm hoping that the 3rd book will either provide a more consistent development of them or they will return to being an enigma. Given the events of this book I don't think they can be left an enigma though.I also thought that some of the things the main characters do are ridiculous considering the context they are living in and the experiences they have had previously. Looking forward to seeing more of Walt in the next book. I think he is one of my favourite characters.
Do You like book Melt Down (2012)?
Great sequel to Breakers. Look forward to more in the series.
—cheyw
Eeeeeells!!! Loved it. Sebastian was SO awesome.
—colin
