Review of Conquered Earth: Valley of Fires by J Barton Mitchell

Advance Review of J Barton Mitchell's Conquered Earth: Valley of Fires

Release Date: December 2nd, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

The sci-fi tour de force series set in an alien-invaded post-apocalyptic world concludes as the teens must unite Earth’s disparate survivors to overthrow its alien invaders once and for all.

Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Assembly. The human adult population is gone, having succumbed to the Tone—a powerful, telepathic super-signal broadcast across the planet that reduces them to a state of complete subservience. But the Tone only affects the population once they reach their early twenties. Which means that there is one group left to resist: Children. In Valley of Fires the trio of kid heroes -Holt, Mira, and Zoey- are forced apart to accomplish individual quests if they are to have any hope of uniting what reamins of Earth's disparate survivors against its alien invaders.

Mira ventures west to bargain with Van Cleef, the enigmatic leader of North America's most infamous resistance group. But Van Cleef has his own plans to end the conflict, a destructive solution that might actually work...but at a horrible cost. Meanwhile, Holt travels with Ravan and Avril back to the one place he swore he would never return: Faust, the sprawling and dangerous desert city of the Menagerie pirate guild. He goes not only to resolve his issues with Tiberius, its tyrannical leader, but to enlist the Menagerie in the fight to save Zoey. Except Tiberius has his own problems. Factions within the Menagerie are splintering, and word of rebellion is beginning to spread. If Holt wants the Menagerie's help, he might have to help his greatest enemy in exchange.

Traveling separate paths with little hope of safety or reunion, Holt and Mira bring this thrilling, genre-bending series to an utterly unforgettable close.

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A non-stop action packed finally to a series I have thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end, Valley of Fires was the perfect ending to Mitchell's series that began with Midnight City. What does the world look like after the invasion has already happened? How do the remaining humans cope with the loss of the life they have known? That is what this series has been about. The aftermath of alien invasion.

Mira, Holt, & Zoey have been through so much already, but can they all live through one last adventure. In Valley of Fires, the group is finally split up. With Zoey being kept at the Citadel in San Francisco after being taken, Mira & Holt will do whatever it takes to get her back... even mending the bridges of their pasts to find allies in their enemies. While Mira begins the arduous trek to California with the Wind Traders & White Helix, Holt is heading home to the Menagerie. Unfortunately Tiberius is anything but a forgiving man.

With the war having already begun, will everyone make it out alive?

How will they cope with the massive losses of the impending endgame?

I was very happy with the conclusion of this series, even if the steps that were written to get there sometimes seemed drawn out, I understand the ending is what really matters. It just took me too long to get there. It always upsets me when a character I have loved dies, but I saw it coming from halfway through the book.

If you loved this series, please make sure to pick up Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave & Stephanie Meyer's The Host.