The Host is a real departure from Meyer's Twilight series. Meyer
has set aside her vampires to give us a solid sci-fi thriller. What
a relief! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Twilight, but after four
books of Bella, I was getting a bit overloaded. The Host is
riveting. I could not put it down. In fact, it's over 600 pages and
I read it in a day.
In this story, a parasitic alien race, who refer to themselves as
'Souls', has taken over the planet, using humans as hosts. While
for the most part, the planet has been overrun, there are still
pockets of 'wild' humans, i.e. humans that have not become hosts,
that try and live under the radar to prevent capture.
The story follows Wanderer, a Soul who has been recently inserted
inside a human host. Wanderer was chosen for this specific host
because of her experiences on eight different worlds. It was
thought that a more experienced Soul was necessary because of the
way this host was 'acquired'. Melanie Stryder, the host, had been
living 'wild' as part of the human resistance. Rather than face
capture, she chose to die a violent death. Unfortunately for
Melanie, the aliens were able to save her and using their superior
healing, mend her broken body, making her a viable host.
While Wanderer immediately takes control of Melanie's body, the
posession does not go smoothly. Resistance by a Host is usually
rare, but Melanie makes her presence known to Wanderer almost
immediately and the two battle with each other for the upper hand.
Wanderer's job is to report any intel that she learns about the
human resistance from Melanie but Melanie makes it difficult for
her to do so. Wanderer may control her body, but Melanie's thoughts
and memories are still her own and she puts them to good use
bombarding Wanderer with memories and emotions of the life stolen
from her but keeping any information that would endanger her loved
ones locked away.
Impatiently waiting for information from Wanderer, is a Seeker. The
Seeker's job is to hunt down rebel humans and she knows that
Melanie's mind should have clues to find the resistance. Both
Wanderer and Melanie take an instant disliking to the Seeker and
this common enemy allows the two to develop a tentative friendship.
While Melanie continues to use what power she has, in the form of
dreams and memories, to gain Wanderer's attention and sympathy,
Wanderer is already feeling somewhat sympathetic and guilty about
what her people have done. Spurred on by their now shared feelings
for the two people Melanie had to leave behind, Wanderer and
Melanie set out to find them.
Using clues from Melanie's memories, Wanderer is able to find a
band of human rebels, led by Melanie's Uncle Jeb. The bulk of the
story features Wanderer's captivity with the rebels and what
follows is a story about what it is to be human, about identity and
about individualism. Most of all The Host is a story about the
nature of love. Romantic love, love of family, love of friends -
all of these emotions are explored by Wanderer as she is first
overwhelmed by Melanie's emotional memories then succumbs to the
emotions herself. All in all The Host makes for compelling reading.
Avoiding the obvious sci-fi clichés it concentrates on humanity and
the human emotions experienced by an alien invader who really wants
to be human.
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