Orbs (Volume 1)

Orbs (Volume 1) - Nicholas Sansbury Smith Earth is dying and humans are set to head for space. Mars to be specific.
Sophie and her team are selected to test out a Biosphere facility that can sustain life and vegetation. However, their research doesn't last long as aliens arrive and start consuming everything in their path to get the resource they need; water. All of it.
What starts out as a experimental mission becomes the real thing as the team fights to stay alive against a horde of aliens that want every last drop, even the water in human bodies.

The story starts out with Sophie meeting up with her team to get instructions on the Bioshere and what is to be expected of them. I didn't connect with Sophie right away and her relationship with her team didn't give me any insight into what type of person she was.
During the first half of the story the reader gets to know the day-to-day workings which really slowed the pacing of the plot down. Lots of talking and not much progression. This was really a big thing because the second half of the book picked up the pace with action and dialogue that kept you wanting to read. It also reinforced the idea that the beginning build-up was too much due to the fact that, in the end, it didn't add to the story.

The characters were decent. I could have used a little more back-story on each of them since most of them were prominent characters. The only one I will point out for being flawed was Overton. He kept things going and added some spice to the story, but at the same time he was over-the-top. That whole Timothy situation was a little much. He was like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Yippee ki yay!

The author was very vague on the aliens, the timeline, and a few other things. For example, Sophie and Overton were driving to the train and it was 750 miles away. I didn't realize this until it was said later. It was as if one moment they were driving and she, if I can recall correctly, went to sleep, and the next moment they were there. It was a little confusing at times. Maybe chapters should have had dates and times? Dunno.

The action kept me tense and flipping the later pages. I did enjoy the descriptions of the aliens and how they collected the water. From Emmanuel's research, I assume we will learn more about them in the next book.

The cliff-hanger or no resolution ending didn't bother me because I knew what I was getting into.

Will the aliens be back? And will Sophie and the survivors be prepared? Will they ever make it to Mars?

This read was very creative and I look forward to reading book 2 to see if Mr. Smith has sharpened his skills.

**I was given a copy in exchange for an honest review**