The Second Ship by Richard Phillips book review

The Second Ship by Richard Phillips (The Rho Agenda #1)

9/10

I'd been looking for something fun to read for a while, the occasional stand-alone fantasy novel, the odd steampunk book here and there. I fancied something a little more science fiction orientated. After browsing Amazon for a while, I came upon this trilogy, good reviews 4 stars out of 187 reviews, plus it sounded like fun. I also loved the fact that the trilogy had been completed, I hate starting a series then having to wait for the next book to come out.

I loved this book, it was a fun read and I absolutely ate it up in a few days time. Don't get me wrong, it follows clichés and there are more than a few times you see things coming a mile away. But, I loved it anyway. It's about three teens that, after hearing the President of the United States officially reveal the evidence of extra terrestrial beings, find their own little secret space ship.

With aliens comes alien technology and of course the following problems that will bring. Though it does also bring benefits, superhero style, essentially every kid's dream.

The characters were fun, again there was some clichés, the boy playing basketball inevitably becomes the star player. Personally I would have preferred to have seen one of the girls be the more physical type but maybe that is something that appears in the later books. Also, the families do appear too perfect to me, no loud arguments and screams and everyone seems to get on with their neighbours. Too black and white, but it doesn't detract from the overall story.

The bad guy, well he's typically evil. Almost demon-headmaster-like, which is not a bad thing but does show this book to be aimed at the younger adult.

The science is great, they hint of things that are already considered and being researched in real life. But never is it anything that is too difficult to understand, the science acting as a plot device and if anything makes you wonder if they might not be far off in the future of reality.

Sometimes the actions of the 'bad guys' is superlative in its violence. This could have been addressed with much more subtlety as their actions tend to be gruesome, which is a shame as I'd have liked to see more depth rather than black and white. Though I have to admit it's also fun to see the bad guys as the epitome of darkness. If anything, it's the 'heroes' that show less defined morals and ethics. 'Ripper' is a character that is a great example of this. Ex-military, he's essentially chaotic good.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next two.

The books in order are: