'Following Reyna Diaz's death at the hands of the Swarm, Kait seals her mother's tomb, swearing revenge. With her allies, including JD Fenix and Del Walker, she returns to New Ephyra to warn the Coalition of Ordered Governments: THE SWARM IS COMING.
'However, First Minister Jinn requires proof of the threat. She also demands their utter loyalty, driving a wedge between the allies. Joined by Marcus Fenix, Kait strikes out on her own while JD and Del embark on a sanctioned mission to prove that the threat is real. With the fate of humankind hanging in the balance, it's a race against time.'
The Gears of War series returns to consoles with the release of Gears of War 5, which continues the story of Kait Diaz and her mysterious connection to the Locust Horde and their Swarm descendants. However, before you dive into the game (or after, I can't tell you what to do), you might want to check out Titan Book's new release Gear of War: Ascendance, which fills in the gap between the fourth and fifth games.
Picking up straight were Gears of War 4 left off, readers rejoin the band of heroes on the mountainside where they found the mutated Reyna. Having killed her mother in order to save her, Kait and her friends bury her before being forced to flee to a safe location thanks to the Swarm still trying to hunt them down.
The group are eventually able to send a message to the COG, and are brought to the city of New Ephyra, where they brief First Minister Jinn on the new threat. A good portion of the start of the book is given over to these meetings and how the group interacts with the somewhat confrontational First Minister. Considering that Jinn has more of a presence in the fifth game, and that her relationship with them is a bigger thing it's great to see these early steps. We get to see her try to bring JD and Del onto her side, we understand a little more of her working relationship with Baird, and we see first hand how frosty her and Kait are towards each other.
Readers also get to see New Ephyra before the Swarm turn up too, and it's interesting to see how a COG city works in a time of peace. Getting to see how the government is using Baird's DB's as police, patrolling the streets and enforcing rules, with surveillance feeds going straight to the COG, it actually makes it a little more understandable why some humans chose to live as Outsiders. The allure of living in nature, away from an oppressive regime is one that I think most people would be able to identify with.
Sadly for the heroes of the story they don't get to spend much time in relative peace, and and thrust back into the action once again. JD and Del are sent to investigate a Locust burial site that the COG have lost contact with, whilst Kait and Marcus head to South Village, an outcast settlement near Kait's home where they hope to find survivors.
The two story-lines are both exciting, and could have easily been the focus of a book each, however, here readers jump between the two are the heroes are put into more and more dangerous situations. Whilst we know that none of them are going to die during these events (they are in the game that follows this book after all) there's still a shed load of tension as they're forced into more and more impossible seeming circumstances, and you're left wondering how they're going to get out alive. These stories are also intercut with scenes of Baird in New Ephyra, where he's not only trying to help both groups, but also trying to upgrade the DB's for the upcoming war with the Swarm.
Gears of War: Ascendance has taken a time frame between the games, where nothing big or important needed to happen, and threw a load of action and character moments into it. It helps to enrich the world of Sera, and really adds to Kait's growth from an Outsider to a member of the COG. Hopefully we'll get more books like this that will continue to fill in these small gaps. I'm hoping that we'll get some books that fills in the four month gap where Kait and Del went out saving Outsider colonies, and JD and Fahz go on missions together. More books like this will only help to improve the Gears of War universe.
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