The 64 members of Fire Lake's sophomore class have managed to survive the first two phases of the Program--and each other. Now, they alone have emerged into the dawn of a new era on Earth, into a Fire Lake valley that's full of otherworldly dangers and challenges.
Although staying alive in this broken world should force Min, Noah, Tack, and the others to form new alliances, old feuds die hard, and the brutality of the earlier Program phases cannot be forgotten. But being a team isn't easy for the sophomores, and when they discover that they may not be alone on the planet after all, they'll have to decide if they're going to work together . . . or die together.
This book has so many twists and turns that it's very, VERY hard not to spoil anything. But I'll do my best...
Not a bad end to the series. It's rare, but I have read a couple series where I hated the first book but greatly enjoyed the subsequent ones. Project Nemesis was one of those. Picking up a few months after the end of the last book, the kids are doing their best to survive their new world. But it turns out that Project Nemesis wasn't quite done messing with them yet.
I enjoyed the strong characters. Min and Noah reprise their roles as narrators, and do a good job staying in the middle of the action. Min is still very much the moral compass of the group, choosing mercy and discussion above violence, but still kicking butt when the situation calls for it. I noticed she froze less often than before, and usually only with information processing rather than emotional distress.
Noah was less involved in diplomacy this time around, tackling exploration and physical persuasion more often than not. I was a little disappointed with the lack of resolution with his panic attacks - he suffers through one or two at the beginning, but then never again, regardless of the situation. I understand it's important not to have your main character freeze up in the middle of things, but a little resolution to this problem he's had since book 1 would have been appreciated.
Another complaint I had was with the villain. She just kinda came out of nowhere in the final hour of the series to provide another obstacle for our heroes. Plus, when her big reveal comes, she just vomits out an exposition dump with hardly any dialog with our narrator. Maybe she has an ego? Maybe she's relieved to get it all out there? We don't know because she's never had any characterization in either of the previous books, and we've hardly gotten to know her in the course of this one. I wish she hadn't been rushed so much, but I guess there's not much to do when all of her involvement is only in the last half of the last book in a trilogy.
As an aside, I totally called what the purple goop was when it first showed up. What can I say? I know my SciFi ;)
The ending was well done. It was action-packed, had me on the edge of my seat for the majority, and had a decisive conclusion. I did get a few Hunger Games vibes from it, but in a good way. The epilogue made me smile. (view spoiler) I probably won't read these books again, but I will at least recommend them more than I would some other post-apocalyptic series. I definitely appreciated the themes in Chrysalis - the resilience of humanity - over the Lord of the Flies vibes that permeated the first two. And I'll definitely keep Brendan Reichs on my list of authors I like.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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