Comic Review - Kingdom: Aux Drift by Dan Abnett
Book 3 of the Kingdom series hits the blog today, and I have book four loaded on the e-reader ready to go. If you have been keeping up, well done. If not, go back and read the reviews so far. This series has surprised me with how much I've enjoyed it.
Commercial: IT’S THE FAR FUTURE, AND MANKIND HAS BEEN ALL BUT DESTROYED. The survivors hide from ‘Them’ – the giant alien bugs that have taken over the world! Only brutal genetically engineered dog soldiers like Gene the Hackman can beat them back.
Gene now leads a new pack of mongrel Aux warriors known as the Wild Bunch, where they live alongside human survivors in their settlement, ‘The Kingdom’. But the kingdom’s cracks are starting to show while Them get meaner… and bigger!
Review
When we last left Gene, he was in a sad place. Leezee Sower was gone, Gene had killed a Master, and the Them were still everywhere. After exploring more of the lawn, Gene and his new group of survivors discover Aux Drift, a mining colony. What makes Aux Drift special is the fact that Humans and Aux are working together and that these humans do not refer to themselves as Masters.
The humans explain to Gene how only the powerful and wealthy could afford to become Masters and be protected by the Aux when the Them first attacked. The rest of the human race had to make do, fending for themselves and hiding from the Them. This news surprises Gene, who can't understand why the Masters would do that and that there is strength within the pack.
Just as everything seems nice and friendly, a giant swarm of Them seems to start displaying more intelligence than usual. Gene heads off to discover why and discovers they have become more of a hive mind controlled by one giant bug. Knowing the only way to save his new pack is to destroy this bug, Gene teams up again with the wild pack. Learning to use explosives, Gene and the team blow up the bug, but the outpost is destroyed. Now homeless again, the miners take Gene and his pack to their home in the Kingdom.
We then move into the following tale: some time has passed, and Gene and Clara Bow have two sons. Like at Aux Drift, we have another horde of Them controlled by a King bug. Gene, being the biggest and strongest, must once again lead a mission to kill the Them leader.
While heading out to deal with the new threat, Gene discovers Numan (the Master who took Leezee Sower to space). After finding Numan, it is revealed that the masters evolved Them to have Kings. Gene enters a berserker rage and attacks Numan but is ultimately stopped by another Aux called Major Canis (think Rogue Trooper Blue Genes, and you're not far off). Having defeated the King bug and then been defeated, Gene is loaded aboard a shuttle and shipped into space.
Here endeth the tale....for now!
An excellent finish for this tale. Gene is a well-rounded character compared to book one. He has a family; he has independent thoughts; he's still a badass. I also love that Them can evolve so fast to deal with threats, along with a group of Masters just chilling in space watching all this go down. Check-in soon for book four!
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