Independence Day #3 War in Desert

Who would have thought that a short, one minute scene from a blockbuster film, would have inspired such a good book? THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. On July 2nd, alien ships arrive over the cities of the Earth. One ship arrives over Jerusalem, where RAF Major Reg Cummins has been sent to retrieve some British fighter pilots and their planes. En route back to their base, the alien ship destroys Jerusalem and the alien fighters kill most of the RAF pilots. Only Reg, Col Thomson, Lt Sutton and Airman Michael Tye survive. They take cover in the middle of the Saudi Desert, where aircraft and pilots from many Middle Eastern countries have also hidden from the aliens. When, on July 4th, the pilots receive a message from the Americans saying that they can bring down the shield on the alien destroyers, the fighter pilots must put aside their personal differences and unite to defeat the alien invaders. Various plans are discussed, but Saudi Captain Faisal has his own plans for personal glory. Reg and Faisal have differing ideas over what to do as the alien ship heads towards Mecca... When the alien destroyer is downed, the pilots think they've won the war. But some of the aliens have survived the crash, and have stolen some biological weapons which they intend to use against the human race. Now Reg and his team - Sutton; Tye; Israelis Miriyam Marx and Yossi; Palastinean Edward; Saudis Fadeela Yamani and Captain Ali Hassan; and Ethiopian Remi - have to put aside their differences once again to save the human race, whilst also trying to deal with Faisal who has imprisoned Fadeela's brother Khalid, who has been accused of being a traitor. Overall I found this a good read that added to the ID4 story in a good way. The first third of the book deals with the timeframe in the film - July 2nd to July 4th - and the attempts to defeat the alien city destroyers. Some events from the film - such as the American nuclear attack on the ship over Houston - were referred to, and of course the scene where Reg and Thomson receive the message about the shields was lifted directly from the film. Afterwards, where the film would have ended, our story continues until July 6th when another battle to save the world occurs. I also liked the various subplots that happened during the book and how they all tied in with each other. The cast of characters were wide and all had real personalities, and I liked how Reg's team had their own, human problems to deal with as well as the alien problem. One slight nitpick is that we only knew half the main characters' full names. Sutton's first name or Edward's last name were never revealed, and I feel this made them slightly less "human". We are supposed to care about these characters yet we don't know their full names. This might just be me though. The various relationships between the main characters were also done well. I enjoyed the bickering between Edward and Yossi about each

I sat down, one morning, with a cup of coffee and thought I'd read a chapter or two of this little paperback I picked up. Lunch came and went without my notice.This book is great! Stephen Molstad is an expert at drawing your right in to the events unfolding! Action packed with just a touch of romance on the side! Everybody is getting copies in their Christmas stockings this year!

Stephen Molstad keeps your nose in the pages as he unfolds the ID4 aftermath before your eyes. His use of descriptive language and involving action will keep you glued to the story right through to the end. In my opinion, this book is as good as, in fact, better than the movie! I'd love to see it made into a screenplay, it would make the perfect sequel to ID4 (does anyone know why it's called ID4 anyway?).Anyhow, it rules. Buy it NOW.

This book is one of the best books I have ever read! It startsout in the Middle East around the same time the movie starts, but thegreat thing about this book is that it goes beyond where the original story ends. Alien surviviors from the city destroyers come out with weapons killing everything in sight. The book is exciting and action packed from beggining to end. It has excellent descriptions about the inside of the city destroyer and you get to learn a lot more about the alien technology. I recommend this book to everyone. I couldn't put it down!

I thought this book was really excellant and worth the wait. The only problem was that it starts off slow.