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The Assault

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Action/war at its brilliant best

Action/war at its brilliant best

This latest novel from New Zealand writer Brian Falkner is action/war at its brilliant best. Nobody in New Zealand has written a novel like this. I was smitten from the first page and what is so good is that it is just the first book in the series.
Earth has been invaded by Bzadians. They first landed in Australia, took the place over peacefully with our consent then used it as a launch pad to take over the Earth and eliminate human beings. They did quite well taking Asia, Africa and Europe using the land bridge but then came unstuck when they struck the oceans.
Now human resistance has centred on North and South America and New Zealand. The Bzadians didn’t want us, perhaps we have a bigger part to play in other books but not in this one.
Humans have detected some strange activity in Ayers Rock, Uluru, and send a six member team into Australia to investigate. Bzadians are only 1% different from humans but then so are chimpanzees, but they are technologically advanced on humans. They call humans Scumbugz and we call them Pukes.
The Recon tean that goes in are made to look like Bzadians. They are short, have elongated heads, forked tongues and talk with a lisp. The human team are teenagers of short stature but ruthlessly trained. What they find and how they go about their task is incredible.
Totally believable, and only 30 years away. Snappy dialogue, total action and dry humour make this a brilliant read for students from Intermediate to senior secondary. Once you start you will not put it down. Teachers notes are available from the publisher.
The best action writing of the year and a sure finalist in next years book awards.
Bobs Book Blog
November 2011
Will blow the top off every previous fast-paced read

Will blow the top off every previous fast-paced read

After Falkner’s previous award-winning works, this breath-stopping sci-fi adventure series will blow the top off every previous fast-paced read.
The setting is 2030, Australia, now known as the New Bzadia. The Aliens have control of Africa, Europe, and most of Asia and are headed for America. Humans are at war with Alien forces that have been slowly strengthening in mass and ability for many years in preparation to take-over the world.
Recon Team Angel in made up of a group of six highly trained teenagers selected from around the world; four boys and two girls. Their leader is Lieutenant Chisnall, the eldest of them all. They have been preparing since puberty for their roles in an elite team to war against the Alien Bzadian army. The Angels’ mission is to infiltrate a top secret Alien Facility behind enemy lines which is in the centre of Uluru, and discover what is being hidden there.
For the infiltration to be successful, the six had been made to look like Bzadians. Their bone structure has been restructured to Alien shape and form, and their skin dyed. They’ve learnt the language and habits, and lived as Bzadians so that they could convince any Alien that they were one of them.
Chisnall is the perfect leader who keeps secrets for the safety of his team. It is only when they lose a member do that they discover that there is a traitor in their midst.
Arriving at Uluru are five Angels and two SAS troopers disguised as RAF officers that the team picked up on the way. At Uluru Military Base, it is not the warhead that they plan to detonate to destroy the alien stronghold that scares the life from them. Nor is it the fact that one of them is a sleeper. It is what they discover in the glass cubicles that gives the gut-wrenching twist to the mission. Chisnall is faced with the hardest decision. How many lives can be classed as collateral damage?
All the adult action is superbly covered but simultaneously balanced by exposing the youthful side of the characters. Their thoughts, dreams and interactions are revealed in a witty, comical way. These comic insertions give the story light-hearted relief from the severity of the chaos that surrounds the teenagers.
Anastasia Gonis - Buzz Words Books
November 2011
The first in a trilogy by the master of action and suspense…

The first in a trilogy by the master of action and suspense…

Recon Team Angel, Assault, is the first in a trilogy by the master of action and suspense, Brian Falkner.
The year is 2030 and the world is at War with an Alien Race, the Bzadiens. The battle ground is earth.
Recon Team Angel, Assault (Book 1 in the trilogy) is a science/fiction paranormal for readers aged 14+. It stars an impressive list of 16 year-old characters trying to infiltrate the enemy camp inside the belly of Uluru, and save the human race.
There’s Lt Chisnall, his second-in-charge, Brogan Hunter, Price and Monster. They all have their special skills and talents. The problem for Chisnall is that one of his team is a traitor intent on sabotaging the mission.
In order to outwit the enemy, Chisnall and his team have undergone extensive training and a physical transformation to disguise them as Bzadiens. They’ve even learned the Bzadien language and customs.
But it just takes the smallest slip in detail to blow their cover, incur the suspicion of the enemy and bring on life threatening consequences.
Recon Team Angel has to blast and shoot its way into Uluru and once they’re inside, they make a shocking discovery.
The Bzadiens have been hiding a terrible secret, and their devious plan to destroy the human race has been going on a lot longer than people realise. It’s up to Recon Team Angel to put a stop to The Bzadien’s plans and save the human race.
Uluru makes a great backdrop for this thriller and the author is masterful in the way he weaves the setting into the plot.
Recon Team Angel is full of quirky characters and non stop action covering a five day mission that leaves you breathless.
Brian Falkner has paid a lot of attention to detail with everything from weaponry to clothing, food, sleep and technology. He has built a fascinating but believable world for the reader.
Recon Team Angel is a group of the most disciplined, highly trained, tech savvy, strategic teens I’ve ever come across – and that’s what makes these characters so impressive. They also have great human quirks that make them individual.
Can’t wait to read the next adventure of Recon Team Angel.
Dee White - Boomerang Books
December 2011
A page-turning, high-voltage adventure

A page-turning, high-voltage adventure

The year is 2030 and the world is at war – again. This time the enemy is from a different planet. The Bzadians started arriving in 2012, claiming refugee status because their world was dying. They only wanted to live in the desert inland of Australia, to rebuild their lives. It was only when the massive extra-terrestrial vehicles kept arriving that humans began to realise that this wasn't so much an escape from a dying planet as an invasion of a new one.
In 2020 Australia fell to the aliens – the first of many countries to do so. It is now 2030 and the Free Territories, the few remaining human-occupied areas, have planned an audacious strike behind enemy lines.
Carefully selected and trained teenagers, surgically altered to look like the short, dome-headed Bzadians, are dropped into the heart of enemy territory. Their mission? To get past the security perimeter and into the heart of Uluru to discover what the enemy is planning. When they get there what they find will horrify them. How they deal with it will determine the fate of humankind. And the traitor in their midst may destroy them all.
Brian Falkner is an extremely talented New Zealand writer who specialises in action adventures. Recon Team Angel Bk1: Assault is obviously the beginning of a thrilling series. Unlike many action writers for teenagers, Falkner's plots are carefully planned, with attention to character as well as narrative. A fan of Alistair McLean, Falkner has a similar gift for capturing the intense and tense relationships that develop between team members when they're under extreme pressure. More sophisticated readers will appreciate the underlying and tangential reference to the political and ethical problems relating to Australia and New Zealand's attraction to migrants and refugees. Highly filmic in style, Assault is a page-turning, high-voltage adventure that will appeal to readers of Anthony Horowitz and Matthew Riley, although Falkner's work feels more complex and polished.
NSWAGTC
March 2012
A strong plot and believable characters

A strong plot and believable characters

After the aliens take over, it's up to the teenagers to save humanity.
Earth has been taken over by an alien species, the Bzadians, who are determined to wipe out all humans as soon as possible. And it’s clear that they are plotting something big to help them succeed, a weapon that is kept shrouded in mystery in a secret installation deep in the Australian Outback. Six teens have been surgically altered to resemble the Bzadians; they are led by Lt. Ryan Chisnall, aka Lucky. He and his team of Angel infiltrators have been living as Bzadians for months just to accomplish this one mission: Determine the nature of this secret weapon and destroy it before it can be deployed. Only Chisnall knows there is another mission as well…to discover the identity of the spy who has already become a member of his own team. Falkner supplies a tight story that features a strong plot and believable characters; the third-person narration shifts focus from Chisnall and his team to Yozi, a member of the Bzadian Republican Guard. Within his science-fiction framework, the author effectively employs the tropes of both survival and war stories to great effect.
While an entirely satisfying read on its own, readers can only hope there is a second installment in the works. (glossary) (Science fiction. 12 & up)
Kirkus Reviews
September 2012

Brian Falkner

The Assault