The Half-Life Empire 2: An Alien Apocalypse Novel

The Half-Life Empire, Book 2

By: Shami Stovall

Narrated by: Diana Richardson

A young woman takes up her grandfather's legacy to bring peace to a post-alien-invasion America in this thriller from the Dragon Award-nominated author.

Hacker Kita Yamasaki is a survivor, a fighter, and the granddaughter of Dr. Benjamin Yamasaki. Once the sole human ambassador seeking peace with the alien Teth, now the doctor is long dead—and only Kita holds the knowledge that can save humanity.

Though she's already foiled one effort to destroy Earth and forged an alliance with the violent, power-armored Judge Gascoigne, new threats arise. Namely, the Iron-Blooded cultists, who wish to ally themselves with the aliens in exchange for their own lives. As they bray for her blood, Kita takes off—along with Bishop, junk hunter and trusted ally—through the blasted post-apocalyptic world that remains after humankind's betrayal to the murderous alien Vay.

But all is not lost . . . Kita's growing stronger, romance is blooming between her and Bishop, and most importantly, she has experienced a vision of a new Earth, in which aliens and humans work together to build an inhabitable planet out of the wasteland. Can she bring an end to the fighting before mutual hatred destroys them all?

©2024 Shami Stovall (P)2024 Podium Audio

Aliens!!!!!

aliens, guns, adventure, and more aliens! I can't get enough and I can't wait for book three!!

Rather bland bridge book

No climactic battle, no new characters with nuance, and not much plot except surviving day to day post-apocalypse. The best character interactions from book 1 are either non-existent (Crouton gets like two quick scenes of doing nothin) or vague repeats of things previously done better (Gascoigne being a mouthy scrapper, Bishop joking). Even the antagonists are nameless menaces or directing actions from far, far offscreen.

This book also veered into the robotech more, but in a bloodier, squishier way (the number of folks who go splat, yeesh). A few F bombs gets thrown down and there’s some innuendo and closed door romance. At one point our MCs cut off a prisoner’s finger and knock out a senile man. Frankly, the tone was pitchy and all over the place.

There was groundwork for book 3’s conflict with the “bad” enemies. I’ll move on for completion’s sake and only because there’s only one more book.