Reviews

Forsaken by Michael McBride

aliciaface's review against another edition

5.0

Moves so quickly

Such a great book! Read thru it very quickly cuz I couldn't put it down! Definitely worth the read. Can't wait for the sequel

mpetruce's review against another edition

3.0

Not quite as solid as the first book in the series. The team gets split up. And then a few things just suddenly happen (though I listened to this, so I may have missed something). Also, the monsters go to having new powers or something and some odd what was learned in book one seems to have been forgotten in book two. But still fun. On to the third book.

waheela's review against another edition

5.0

Better than the first book. Suspense held up through the whole book.

Characters were nothing special. Excecpt for a couple I found boring and cliché.

The author manages to steer around the typical bad guy in this series. That is refreshing and kept the focus on the suspense and mystery.

bookanonjeff's review against another edition

5.0

Read Book 1 First... And Be Glad You Have This Book On Hand. This is one of those sequels that picks up from the first book and directly uses its base to tell this book's story. So if you haven't read Book 1 (Subhuman) yet, start there first. But go ahead and buy this book so you have it on hand when you finish Subhuman.

If you like classic horror/ scifi tales along the lines of Aliens, The Thing, or even Jurassic Park... you're gonna want to pick up this series. If you're looking for a Crichton-esque technothriller or a Preston/Child-esque dark mystery or a Brett Battles-esque tale of global peril... you're gonna want to pick up this series.

Indeed, my *only* quibble here, and I happen to be in somewhat of a rare/ possibly unique position to have it, is that here, in this ostensibly horror/ scifi tale, McBride creates a bigger and more ominous global threat than his alter ego Michael Laurence has created by the end of his own Book 2 in the Exinction Agenda series (which is still awesome in its own right, as more of a police procedural/ scifi action thriller). That noted... I happen to be glad I have an ARC of the next book in this series, Mutation, which releases in just 10 days from the time I write this review. Very much recommended.

tpaulschulte's review against another edition

4.0

I didn't thgink that author McBride could ratchet up the action any higher than he did in Subhuman. I was wrong. Forsaken is a mile a minute thrill ride that takes place in such exotic locales as Teotihuacan, Antartica and the englisf moors. Between shadowy organizations and monsters from your worst nighmares, McBride keeps the storyline from Subhuman moving and evolving. Using ancient myth and our world's greatest mysteries from Stonehenge to the Nazca Drawings to the Great Pyramids in Eygpt to crop circles in the english countryside, this is on heck of a book. But, you really need to read Subhuman first. You will be lost if ou don't.
Next up Mutation Unit 51 #3!

billies_not_so_secret_diary's review against another edition

4.0

Forsaken is book 2 of an action/adventure/paramilitary series call Unit 51 and the story picks up 6 months after the conclusion of the first. I hate giving away spoilers so I will refrain, but think James Rollins, this story is very similar in plot and action. But there might be a little more blood in McBride's novel.

I did enjoy this story, much than I did the first. It read quickly and smoothly, but the characters were kind of hard to connect with because each chapter was from the perspective of one of the main characters, so it was hard for me to really get under their skin, thus get to know them.

(It was probably a good thing I didn't look back at my review of the first book because I might not have looked twice at this one, (or the third which the ARC is waiting for me). But I still wonder if the reason why I enjoyed this book more was because I read it instead of having the kindle read it too me.)

Anyways, if you like James Rollins, action, adventure, military with some blood and guts and monsters, then this would be a series for you to try. But because of the blood and violence I would only recommend it to mature readers over 16 years of age.

I give this book 4 stars.

lilyn_g's review

4.0

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author for review consideration. If that affected my review, I would have given it a 5 star, wouldn't have I?

Michael McBride writes kick-ass, non-stop action with the best of them. Forsaken is a book that demands your attention from the moment the first death happens and doesn’t let up until it’s over. The scene near the end in FOB Atlantis had me glued to the page. The scenes in Teotihuacan weren’t quite as run for your lives feeling but were still tense and interesting.

Forsaken picks up soon after Subhuman ends, and all the remaining characters (as far as I remember) come back for their second act.   This is a smooth continuation of the story that takes us through an arc that leaves you feeling completely committed to reading the third book. It’s obvious the author knows what the end game for this storyline is going to be, and it’s going to be a doozy.

I don’t believe Forsaken would function well as a stand-alone novel. Technically you could read it without reading Subhuman, but you would be missing out. The two novels are just too closely related to read the second without reading the first.

The only problem I have with Forsaken is that there are too many characters, and those characters are too flat to make an impression. I had problems keeping all of them straight in the first book. It didn’t get any better in the second book. (Maybe if I had read them back to back, but with a few months in between them… not so much.) While McBride is excellent at describing the locations, the action, etc, it is the human aspect that is lacking.  Even one day after finishing the book, I must really think to remember most of the characters names.

The Unit 51 novels are thrillers with a heavy dose of horror and some science fiction. If you’re looking for something to replace the cookie-cutter Sigma Force novels of James Rollins, I recommend trying this series out.

Overall, while I can’t say I liked Forsaken quite as much as I liked Subhuman, I still enjoyed it. There weren’t as many one-liners to enjoy in this book. It had a much more serious, straight-forward feel to it. That isn’t a bad thing, it’s just something to note if you enjoyed that aspect of the first book. This one gets the ball rolling on the action a lot quicker than in the first book. It’s a solid, enjoyable read, and a good follow-up to Subhuman.

I can’t wait to see where he lands with the third book. And I do have to read the third book!