The Plague Forge by Jason M. Hough

Published by Del Rey on September 24, 2013

As the final novel in the Dire Earth trilogy, The Plague Forge promised to solve the central mystery that animated the first and second books: Why did aliens build space elevators on Earth, turn most humans into subhumans (except for those protected an aura emitted by alien gadgetry), and scatter objects around the globe that were meant to be plugged into an alien spaceship like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle? The Plague Forge does indeed answer those questions -- apart from some annoying gaps in the explanation -- although the reader must wade through a lot of repetitive action scenes before an expository information dump in the final pages reveals the aliens' purpose. The answers are disappointing, and in some respects absurd, but most disappointing of all is that they seem to set up another series of books that will probably feature more mindless action scenes with little substantive content.

The characters are the strength of the series. They aren't particularly deep but they have well-defined personalities and undergo credible changes as the story develops. Although Skylar is the chief protagonist, several of the supporting characters are equally important, and in some respects are easier to care about. Some turn into unlikely heroes, furthering a theme that heroism is often a function of desperate circumstances. That's the aspect of The Plague Forge (and the series) that I liked best.

Post-apocalyptic political struggles are well conceived, giving rise to the kind of characters who are fun to despise. The seeds of political intrigue that were planted in the first two books bear fruit here. Some other interesting ideas underlie the series, but they are too often buried in scenes of people hitting and shooting each other. There are only so many times our heroes can do battle with subhumans or bad humans before the battles become tiresome. The entire series could (and should) have been whittled down to a single book, yet it would still be a book with a disappointing expository ending that isn't an ending at all. The Dire Earth novels have some merit, but if there are more to come, I doubt I'll devote any time to them.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS