John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard's Conquest starts out like a lot of sci-fi novels: a more advanced civilization takes over a more primitive Earth. The Illyri look much like us, and their culture is enough like ours that they blend right in. This was sort of strange--there were greater cultural and physiological differences between European explorers and some of the natives they encountered than between Illyri and humans. For the most part, the Illyri are benevolent dictators, sharing beneficial technology and medical advancements, while only killing a few million people and destroying Rome (minor details).
But humans don't like to be invaded. Once the set-up of the story is complete, Conquest turns to a teen love story that feels like it should be on the shelf next to Twilight or Hunger Games. The daughter of an Illyri leader gets mixed up with some super-cute teenage boys who are part of the resistance, fighting Illyri occupation. Then her dad's super mean political rivals arrive from the home world to assert control over Earth. She has to escape with her new boyfriend and fight the mean Illyri.
Conquest is not so much a book for sci-fi fans as a book for teens. The tone, the scientific element (lack of), and the overly simplistic story places it squarely outside the realm of serious sci-fi. Besides the whole star-crossed lovers element, I couldn't stand the melodramatic court intrigue. It was almost insulting to read the cartoonish villains, like from a bad fairy tail. And they had to throw in an dash of magic and telepathy to further push it into YA fantasy and away from hard sci-fi.
If they ever make a movie of this, it might be entertaining. I don't mind 90-120 minutes of special effects, battle scenes, and cheesy story lines. But I didn't enjoy reading it, and I certainly won't be reading the sequel(s). Too many other good books out there.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
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