I really loved this story.
When I first started reading it I was thinking mostly Juvenile Science Fiction. The main characters are fairly young and still in school. Their parents are working parents and the children are left home alone a lot. They discover a strange door in the basement that leads to a room where gravity is shifted. Since Nate is your typical older and protective brother it devolves to Victoria to be the one who believes in conspiracy theories and aliens as in Roswell. So this room is Victoria's biggest vindication.
It is a bit troubling that it might point to them as being the aliens.
(This is the Robinson family and I couldn't get my mind off of references to Lost in Space.)
This book hooked me right from the start, no matter what I might have expected.
There's an element about the mysterious aliens that reminded me a bit of Buckaroo Banzi so when Nick ends up in a band it doesn't surprise me as much as it does him. There are also elements of Howard the Duck in here with portals or wormholes to other worlds with waiting armada's of space invaders. This makes sense when we work out that there are two, no maybe three, different alien groups working here.
Most interesting and perplexing though are the references to Indiana Jones and that franchise of films. It's like a running joke that can only be understood if you've seen all the films and it intimates a possibility of those in different generations who may perceive differently. Especially if someone missed that first movie. You'll just have to read it to understand.
When Nate and Victoria's parents are kidnapped by people infected by some alien mind control they have to delve into the secrets in their basement to help save their parents. They quickly learn they can trust no one, not even the military who have apparently come to the rescue.
With a little help from friends and a mysterious AI they slowly unravel the secret of their parents lives and their own. As they go they pool together their resources to break into a place their parents have been keeping secret from everyone. They don't realize that throughout it all they will be watched.
To say more will really spoil things but the most interesting part of the story is the building of the characters and the telling of the story so you can't go wrong with this one.
This has a well put together plot, with even pacing and some neat speculative science.
For all fans of SFF- Science Fiction Fantasy. Great start to a promising series.
J.L. Dobias
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