'An alien invasion wreaks havoc on Earth. Conventional weapons seem harmless. In a desperate attempt, the US government experiments with chemical treatment on five teenagers. The objective: to increase their intelligence to a superhuman level. Then they can invent the weapon that will save us all. Unless they get out of control themselves...'
AKKAD is the story about a world where humanity has been left on the back-foot thanks to the appearance of strange, alien lifeforms that appear seemingly at random across the globe. These huge, insect-like creatures don't seem to really do much when they appear; they don't destroy buildings or kill anyone even though they carry huge weapons. their real weapons, however, are the force-fields that they erect, blocking off huge areas that become impassable, stealing territory from the human population.
Humanity have been fighting these invaders for years, but their weapons have been proving ineffective, and more and more land has been lost to these strange creatures; with almost the entire east coast of the US lost. It seems like nothing can be done to kill the creatures, and any attempts to reenter the locked off parts of the world meet with failure. Because of this, a desperate plan is put into motion. Knowing that no one alive is smart enough to come up with a solution the US government finances an experiment to use cutting edge science to turn five teens into geniuses, hoping that their increased intelligence will help find a solution. However, it appears that the people they have chosen may not be the perfect candidates, and soon the five of them plan to escape those keeping them locked away.
There was a lot about AKKAD that I really enjoyed. For a book that's about an alien invasion of Earth it didn't feel like your average alien invasion story. There was no real occupation force, no masses of alien troops keeping humanity under their heel. There's no spaceships or laser guns firing down from orbit. It felt very small in scale in a lot of ways, and it had more of a post-apocalypse tone at times thanks to the vast ruined cities left abandoned by the survivors.
I think the fact that even by the end of this first volume I knew nothing about these alien creatures helped a lot with this. They don't really have a name, with the only time they're called by a nickname the person being told not to do that. They're simply 'the invaders' or 'the aliens'. Their goals seem kind of nebulous, with no real endgame evident. They feel more like a force of nature, albeit one we don't understand, than monsters attacking us for our resources.
The book also stays pretty minimal on the exposition in other areas, allowing the reader to try and pick up information as we go along. We don't get any info dumps on the state of the world, nor do we know much about the five teens chosen to become super smart heroes. We're given small insight as the story progresses, but it's stuff that we have to try and make sense of for the large part. It's small hints and snippets of dialogue that give us insight. Clarke doesn't seem to want to hold your hand and walk you through things, instead letting you figure it out as you go.
Clarke doesn't just provide the writing on the book, but also produces the art; another strong point of the book. I really liked the artwork on AKKAD, the nice, neat line work was great, and the people looked nice and distinct from each other. The art style also worked well for the ruined locations, with the wrecked cities looking stark, with debris everywhere. The alien creatures also looked fantastic, and I love their insect-like design. They reminded me of giant ticks or fleas in the brief moments we get to see them, and I'm super interested to learn more about them and to see what other things Clarke can do with the design.
Overall this is an interesting start to the series, and Clarke crafts a solid base upon which to build the story. The characters have only just begun to be explored, and whilst there are one or two that intrigue me already most still feel like I haven't had the chance to know them yet; this is something that I'm hoping will be explored further in the upcoming volumes. If you're into interesting new sci-fi and want to something a bit different this book is definitely worth a go.
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