- Paperback
- Publisher: Ace Books (June 1988)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 044168792X
- ISBN-13: 978-0441687923
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.2 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 136 g
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Once the colonists realized their mistake, the military moved in to quarantine the planet. Unable to determine human from alien, the military left all the inhabitants stranded on the planet. Only the plan failed. The quarantine was breached. Aliens began to walk among humans, threatening terror if their demand was not met: to be left alone. The natural human response was to destroy the planet, but unable to detect a shapechanger and unable to determine how many have escaped, the humans were stuck. They were unable to destroy the planet for fear of internal attack. The aliens would not attack for fear of losing their home world. Enter the Psychodrome players.
Arkady and Breck were recruited by Coles-the secret military leader behind the scenes pulling all the strings-to find and capture a live alien. Meanwhile, Psychodrome started a new extended campaign: Alien Invasion! The goal being to desensitize humans into thinking the invasion was a new game, hopefully to avoid widespread panic. In the beginning it worked as the aliens only attacked enough to show they were capable. However the game became more dangerous when a shapechanger labeled Chameleon figured out how to attack through Psychodrome's broadcasts. Arkady and Breck must find a specimen quickly or there will be no hope for the human race.
Even though this is a sequel to Psychodrome, it almost shouldn't be. The first book was about the struggles of a down-and-outer being thrown into game of futuristic games which the player was unable do determine whether it was true or an induced hallucination. While this book follows the ending of the first, it heads in a completely different direction, covering primarily the war with aliens. That's not to say it is necessarily a bad thing. This book is more thought provoking than the prequel. It contained several underlying messages such as humanity's proclivity to violence and a desire of humans to "save" savage races, among others. Hawke does a fantastic job mixing a drama and action into a well-written story, if not a bit cheesy in certain areas. This story, while thought provoking, is a little short. I was left wanting much more. The ending is a great intro to a sequel, but since Hawke hasn't written another in the series since the late 80's, it is unlikely there will be closure to the story. I would rate it a three out of five due to the lack of closure and story deviation.