Changes

|title=Empires: Extraction

|author=Gavin Deas

|publisher=Gollancz

|date=November 2014

|summary=You may be sitting comfortably in your seat, but we are not alone. Not only do we have to contend with one aggressive alien race, but three of them. Rees is one of a chosen few who know what is going on, but it appears there is little he can do about it. Join him in this mixture of intelligent and military science fiction.

}}

I will take my hat off to any author or authors who partake of experimental fiction; trying to do something a little differently to push new ground. However, I will jam that hat right back onto my head if said book forgoes the basic need to entertain in preference of being something 'Meaningful'. Gavin Deas, a combination of authors Gavin Smith and Stephen Deas, have tried to do something different, but does it work?

''Empires: Extraction'' and ''Empires: Infiltration'' tell the story of a duo of alien races as they fight over Earth. The two books can be read separately, but if read together they paint a narrative from both sides. However, before you can read both books, you have to finish one of them first. In my case this was ''Extraction'', a book that follows the alien race The Weft and SAS member Rees. The Weft stumble across Earth when they discover strange readings coming from the backwards planet. Meanwhile, Rees finds himself part of a task force investigating strange 'Scary Clown' like creatures that seem to be able to vanish into thin air and have incredibly powerful weapons.

It is an inherent problem in invasion fiction that the hero rarely knows what on Earth is happening off Earth. However, more than in most cases ''Extraction'' also does not inform the reader. We learn that there are alien races other than the Weft, but only capture glimpses of them. It is a deliberate ploy by co-authors Smith and Deas to make both books in the series synchronous, therefore you are never going to know what is truly happening until you have read both.

Although, I had issues with ''Extraction'' there is one major scene in the book that is excellent. Once the action kicks in there is some brilliantly realised military science fiction on offer. I fear that many people may struggle to reach this far into the book. The Weft themselves are not that easy to relate to; they lack similar emotions to humans. This artificial intelligence way of acting makes more sense after reading ''Infiltration'' as The Pleasure are a far more Man-like race.

More epic science fiction can be found in [[The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J Anderson]], but for something that is actually fun try [[Lock In by John Scalzi]] instead.

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