Daniel X: Watch the Skies , by James Patterson

Paperback, 288 pages

Published (first published July 1st 2009)

ISBN

0099525267 (ISBN13: 9780099525264)

original title

Daniel X: Watch the Skies (Daniel X, #2)

series

Daniel X #2

characters

Daniel X

 

All's quiet in the small town of Holliswood - television sets, computers, and portable devices are aglow in every home, classroom, and store. But not all is perfect. Evil is lurking, just out of sight, behind the screen. From the darkest depths of James Patterson's imagination flickers the most terrifying character yet: a villain with more ambition than the world can withstand, dead set on throwing a sleepy town into chaos and documenting the destruction of every person in it, including Daniel.
Daniel X is the only person who can stop this made-for-TV tyrant from wiping out the city and everyone living there. This devilish director assembles an all-star team of his own creation, and not even Daniel can imagine the enormity of his plans. Can Daniel X stop this deranged outlaw before he stages the most spectacular finale the world has ever seen? Or will Daniel find himself on the cutting-room floor?

 

My Review

To be honest, the book wasn't all that, but it was still an entertaining write that really seemed to engage the mind with a sense of, what would you do? I think a lot of us joke about the fact that perhaps one day aliens could take over the world, but what if they really could? what would you do and how would you handle it? In this book we see exactly that, but I found it a little strange. Now, yes, this is the second book in the series and I have not read the first series, but that didn't seem to really matter about not having read it because you still knew what was happening. I liked the idea of the story because all too often writers are writing about vampires zombies and werewolfes, so reading about aliens and not good aliens really seemed to almost, well it seemed like the young adult version of war of the worlds with a bit of spark and jazz to it. The book flowed and you did seem to understand what it was that they were heading for, in that there was a bad alien that was in the list of top ten that seriously needed to be gone and he was causing havoc that could really and ultimately destroy the world.

 

We also then have daniel, the alien hunter who is in fact an alien himself. I suppose that in book one we actually discover his whole identity and the history of him, so I might have to see if my library has it as there not very good at having book one of a series. Daniel though seems to live and enjoy life via his imagination. His family are dead but he can imagine them up as if they had never died at all, then there is the alien busting squad or his friends. I think this in itself was a thought provoking element for me because it made me question the real feelings of daniel, after all surely if he is an alien, he must be lonely to not be able to spend time with real people? or maybe there is a reason why he doesn't want to? you get the feeling that there is a lot more than meets the eyes with the main character and that does leave you wanting to read on because in most series you do discover so much more.

 

The story was ok, simplistic and the chapters were odd, like some of them were only a page long which seemed pointless to me, it was like just one of nothing before you got to a real point of the book that was worthy reading. So that was highly irritating, but it seems to be something that a lot of authors like doing and it is something that I would like to question why. But the story and the plot was different and it is therefore possible that it will shine out from a crowd of books because it is different. Im not really sure if I therefore enjoyed it or not. it had a great point to it, it was engaging and seemed to open my eyes to many different things and possibilities that could occur, but it was also a bit....short, a bit brief and simplistic in places. I would say its not one of james pattersons best novels, but Im also guessing its aimed at people a lot younger than me. 

 

My rating