Steve Wawman

I have to start by admitting an interest - I know Steve Wawman from many, many moons ago at university. Despite that, I am trying to provide an objective review. Slightly to my surprise, I enjoyed this novel - it starts with a military team in Cardiff who have the job of checking for alien invasions suddenly encountering an alien invasion and not having a clue how to cope. As the situation worsens, they try to work out what is happening, and realise that the aliens are... well... alien. Steve produces a significantly strange and intriguing set of aliens - these aren't Star Trek aliens with bumps on their foreheads. They are strange and different, and there are twists to come with the threat facing Cardiff and beyond. Initially I was waiting for a blue box to wheeze and groan into existence - the military team even refer to themselves as a Unit - but as the plot develops we move away from Doctor Who territory into something stranger. The book reaches a conclusion, but as the "Book 1" tag indicates, it leaves matters open for a continuation. The book loses a star for needing editing - Steve needed to have a professional editor at least to deal with typos and spelling faults - and also for a dull and bland cover, but the story itself isn't bad - it kept me reading. I'll be interested to see where the narrative goes with book 2.… (meer)