Book Review: Hive by Jeremiah Ukponrefe (The Arcane Volumes Book 1)

     The world was ran by the Collective and enjoyed relative peace until an alien known as the Hive came, taking over humans. The humans under the Hive are alive, but trapped in their minds without control of their bodies until they finally die. Since this hostile takeover the world has split into factions. Collective, libertarians, amishmen, the Hive, and human Loyalists to the Hive. However when Alex of the Collective goes on his first mission as Commander most of his and Commander Green's squad were lost while attacking a Hive Hub. Now, Alex must get him and what remains of his team back to the Collective before it is too late. 

    I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. I seem to be on an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic kick and I couldn't love it more. Sometimes you just need a good end of the world book to sink your teeth into and this one does not disappoint. You have characters to love and hate.

    If you are anything like me you start out my hating the main character. He seems like a complete asshat. Killing citizens and anyone that doesn't conform. Literally got his promotion as a result of killing a civilian in front of his young son for having a weapon. Something commonplace now was illegal in their world. Over the course of the story he slowly becomes more relatable and I hated him less and less. I thought he was a bit flakey. Once he was out of his precious collective he flopped back and forth on decisions and when it came to taking control of a situation someone else on his team would be the ones to get their hands dirty while he got the praise. This went on for a good portion of the book. 

    I'm glad that it changed over the course of the story and I feel the author did a good job developing this main character as well as the other characters in the story. Even the main antagonist in the story, the Hive, adds another level to the story. Like I said, even the characters in the story that you hate are ones that you love to hate. 

    This book ended in a way I didn't expect. Everything was tied up nicely. Wrapped in a bow and all. I expected nothing more from it. Then there was another chapter. In that chapter someone else was added which sets up the ability for this to be more than a standalone book. Now it has the option to continue into a series and I am excited to see where this leads. 

    This book is available on Amazon for $3.99 by clicking here.