Alight is the second book in the Generations Trilogy by Scott Sigler. In this review, I will likely bring up points about plot points both crucial and obscure, otherwise known as spoilers. If you have not started reading this series but, intend to, I suggest you come back once you have read the first book. If you're not sure you want to start this series, check out my review of Alive by Scott Sigler.
We first met the main characters, Em (M.), Bishop, and their friends on the day they consider their birthday. Having emerged from containers they first think of as coffins and for some of their number, it is an accurate description. Those that survived wind up feeling like 12 year olds in much more mature bodies. As they learn about where they are they learn who they are: bodies to be hosts to the conscientiousness of their makers on a spacecraft. The big problem? The bodies don't want to be overwritten and in the end, leave the spacecraft for the nearest planet.
As with most second books in a series, there is quite a bit of character development going on here. This story almost requires quite a bit of growth of the characters we already know an Scott Sigler delivers. We start to see the answer to the question that has been on all their minds: Will they their own per persons or are they just a copy of the grown ups that made them. Of course there are new characters introduced to us but, I don't want to say too much to avoid spoilers.
All of this self discovery does not get in the way of a very good story. These kids have quite a bit to deal with figuring out how to exist in a new environment and all that comes with that. Along with all the new problems they have many of the same unresolved issues they had while trying to leave the ship.
Alight by Scott Sigler is exactly the kind of follow up the first book Alive. It not only advances the story, it also gives it somewhere to go. All of this happens while the characters grow and become more than they were. There is quite a bit of violence and hints of mature conduct but, it still stays in the lighter side of PG13 for me.
We first met the main characters, Em (M.), Bishop, and their friends on the day they consider their birthday. Having emerged from containers they first think of as coffins and for some of their number, it is an accurate description. Those that survived wind up feeling like 12 year olds in much more mature bodies. As they learn about where they are they learn who they are: bodies to be hosts to the conscientiousness of their makers on a spacecraft. The big problem? The bodies don't want to be overwritten and in the end, leave the spacecraft for the nearest planet.
As with most second books in a series, there is quite a bit of character development going on here. This story almost requires quite a bit of growth of the characters we already know an Scott Sigler delivers. We start to see the answer to the question that has been on all their minds: Will they their own per persons or are they just a copy of the grown ups that made them. Of course there are new characters introduced to us but, I don't want to say too much to avoid spoilers.
All of this self discovery does not get in the way of a very good story. These kids have quite a bit to deal with figuring out how to exist in a new environment and all that comes with that. Along with all the new problems they have many of the same unresolved issues they had while trying to leave the ship.
Alight by Scott Sigler is exactly the kind of follow up the first book Alive. It not only advances the story, it also gives it somewhere to go. All of this happens while the characters grow and become more than they were. There is quite a bit of violence and hints of mature conduct but, it still stays in the lighter side of PG13 for me.
