This is also perhaps the weakest, and darkest, book in the series. The Earth the Remnants discover is a complete wasteland. How are they going to survive without the ship? The Troika are still working against them, and the Remnants faith in Jobs is weakening.
We get a final inner-thought process look at all our characters for the last time as the descend down to Earth, making this the most character development we've seen thus far in the series. But our characters still seem two-dimensional, and the story is narrowing down - along with the cast of characters - so that all we are left with by the end of the book is a desperate situation with a bunch of characters we only half care about. By this point we're just curious about what's going to happen, and of course, as always, who'll survive - or more appropiately, die next.
This book also has the distinction of being the only one divided into two parts: Part one - the ship, and Part two - planet earth.It is also the shortest book at 134 pages long, and, despite the information posted everywhere, was published in December of 2002, not January of 2003. I bought the book before 2003, so I know.
All in all, I would only read this book as part of the series. Reading it by itself. . . sadly, it falls short of the mark as a stand alone. But for me, it was an interesting page turner. But, then again, I'm a very devoted fan of the series.
Prognosis: must for Remnants fans, not for all those other guys.
1. Book 9's cliffhanger ending isn't really resolved, as this one starts ninety days later. Two of the Remnants, it turns out, died at the end of Book 9, and two more die in Book 10. Yikes. Annoyingly, their deaths aren't made enough of, and the other characters don't react strongly enough. Oh, well.
2. We haven't learned everything about Violet and her mutation yet.
3. The Troika are finally revealed in their entirety. Just wait'll you meet Duncan.
4. Tate's mutation manfiests itself. Let's just say: be afraid. Be very afraid.
5. Yes, Book 10 has another cliffhanger ending. If you thought things were looking bad last time...
6. This is the shortest Remnants book yet. Sorry.
I think I've teased you enough. Now you HAVE to buy the book! Hee hee hee!