Ji FU reviewed V: The Second Generation by Kenneth Johnson
A decent direct sequel to the 83 Miniseries
3 stars
V: The Second Generation is an independent novel authored by Kenneth Johnson the producer of the original 1983 V Miniseries, the only part of the V "universe" that Johnson owned the IP rights to. Its written in a way that it should be able to stand on its own so if you've never read or watched anything in the V francise you should be fine to pick this up. However, if you have, I recommend re-watching the the original miniseries first. If you've watched "The Final Battle" or the '85 or '08 T.V. series, or read the earlier spin off books, it can be confusing following this. The Visitors never left Earth, the've been here for over 20 years and the lizard people have continued to control world affairs and are still stealing our liquid water and our second generation has grown up under their brainwashing "knowing" that the Visitors arent' only our friends but the only reason the human race still exists. Much of the original heros are still here, save Mike Donavan who has assumed killed in '91 during a raid in france, and much of the world wide resitance was destroyed in '99. For the most part I like this book, but it was written oddly. It started very interesting with new aliens shoing up in their rural hunting cabin and our fisherman super excited by their naked bodies. But I don't know why they had to kill them. Sometimes it is hard to keep straight because Johnons switches scenes/perspectives so quickly. Sometimes he adds the double line break to indicate and sometimes he doesn't. Its clear that he is more use to writing for T.V. than writing a novel. I appreciated the tension between Diana and the new Visitor commandant Jeremey and "The Leader" finally coming to earth. I was surprised how the "half-breeds" where treated as slaves and despised by most everyone but their own families. The descriptions of the new alien Zenthi and their are they with us or are they not was treated very well. The closer I got to the end the more I wondered if it was going to get all tied up or if this was intended to be the first in a series that didn't occur. It has a happy ending, if inconclusive.