Stars Rain Down by Chris J Randolph

For the most part, this story was really well written with an ambitious plot. The story starts with alien Kai, waking up to a destroyed world and being sent off to warn other planets...Then the story transitions to characters Jack and Marcus, humans living in a futuristic Earth. Jack is an Emergency Rescue worker and Pacifist, while Marcus is an astronomer and astronaut searching the galaxy for a drifting alien vessel... 

The characters were well thought out. The pacifist must become the war hero and the passive scientist must work to save the world from intergalactic invaders. The action sequences were exciting and devastating. The plot twists: who the invaders are and what they're after, were shocking and dripping with irony. The paths of the main characters, Jack and Marcus, ran beside one another but never crossed.

The reason this story avoided the five star hit, was the ending. Don't get me wrong, I liked parts of the ending; I'm a sucker for happy endings... But it was rushed and untidy. In a hurry to bring us the end, the author abandoned detail and jumped right ahead to vague intentions. Two out of three characters weren't clearly dead or alive at the end... And the minor characters weren't even sure what happened? If you save a planet from complete destruction, wouldn't you tell everyone you'd done it? So if the two missing characters are dead... Why didn't their friends tell the story? If your friend saves the world and dies to do it, wouldn't you want him to be remembered? So how could no one know the details? Eh.

But if you don't mind slightly obscure endings, don't let the ending stop you from reading this story.

Rating: 4/5

Review originally posted on:

Dec 9, 12