The Battles of Bridget Lee: The Invasion of Farfall

Bridget Lee has the same nightmare each night: a vivid replay of the moment she was caught between the murderous alien marauders who have humanity on the ropes and her dying husband. Bereaved and battle-scarred, she must carry on as the army medic her people so sorely need, but there is worse still to come. Despite Bridget’s potential as a character—an older woman on her own, with a dark past and a darker future—this is a thuddingly generic take on a sci-fi premise already worn thin. The aliens are bad. The humans are desperate. The children are huddled and vulnerable. Visually, it’s better—Young confidently balances action with human drama and bursts of color enliven both. Unlike his acclaimed first book, Nanjing: The Burning City, this war story is often buried in tropes of the genre. (Oct.)