Book Review: Desperate Measures
The explosive third and final instalment in Dave McCreery’s awesome Weight of the World trilogy.
It’s been a while since I read the second book in this series, Recall Order, and I don’t know why I do this to myself. This trilogy is so much fun and I ought to have bumped this one up the TBR long before now! I have thoroughly enjoyed my run through this series and I’m excited to hear what Dave has in store next.
Blurb
The aliens won. With humanity facing extinction from an even greater threat, can he find a way to save his home from the ruthless invaders?
Ryan Fall failed. He couldn’t stop another invasion and Earth is now under alien control. The fleet has left the solar system to find a new home and protect what’s left of the human race, but Ryan is tormented by everything he could have done differently.
With his comrades in Flare Squadron, Ryan embarks on his most daring plan yet: a one-way mission back to Earth.
To reunite with his allies on the surface, Ryan must step up and become a leader. His decisions will be the difference between life and death. The stakes have never been higher, and the pressure threatens to overwhelm him at every turn. Only the hope of a better future gives him the strength to keep going.
Survival is not enough. Can Ryan beat the odds and bring peace back to Earth?
Desperate Measures, the gripping conclusion to the Weight of the World series, is an exciting military sci-fi adventure. With a last-ditch plan to save humanity from the brink of annihilation and reclaim Earth, there are no second chances.
Hope is the greatest weapon.
Review
A mission to take back the Earth, secret bases, and huge mech battles. What’s not to love? Ryan Fall’s story comes full circle in this final instalment of the bombastic and explosive Weight of the World series. Dave’s prose is so easy to read that I found the hours just slipping away, and with the chapters being fairly short, you feel like you’re making blinding progress through the story. Combine that with fast-paced action and melodramatic sincerity, and you’ve got a brilliant adventure romp on your hands. And this is par for the course in the trilogy. It’s just so much fun.
Desperate Measures went in directions I didn’t see coming, for better or worse, but I very much enjoyed my time with it. The story mixes high-intensity action with sombre introspective moments really well. The weight of the last-ditch mission is never lost, and I enjoyed Ryan’s interactions with Zack and his relationship with Captain Ryder. I will say that I never quite grasped the combative relationship with Matthews throughout the trilogy. Sometimes he comes across as a fatherly figure, and sometimes pretty antagonistic, but there are some moments where it felt like Ryan’s reaction to Matthews didn’t match what was happening. Individually great characters, but their dynamic together sometimes felt forced. There were also one or two moments with other characters where the reunion felt a little flat and I would’ve liked to have seen these moments expanded upon—Especially with Ryan’s teacher, exploring the upending of their roles in relation to one another.
The worldbuilding isn’t afraid to have lasting impact. The lost remnant of humanity out in space, the great gouges left in the world from the occupation. Although, there were many questions still left open at the end that are ripe for exploration in another book. There’s a fine line between leaving things open-ended to give a sense that the world carries on after the story is finished, and leaving questions about the story unanswered in a way that points to a sequel. I think Desperate Measures hits the latter and so in that sense, this final part of the trilogy didn’t feel quite so final. All that being said, the wind-down from the climax brought the book (if not the series) to a satisfying conclusion.
Overall Desperate Measures is a very enjoyable, fast-paced and action packed adventure and a wonderful story in its own right. For a fan of high-octane mech combat action, this is absolutely for you.
