Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Indian Hill (A Mike Talbot Adventure)


Indian Hill by Mark Tufo
(A Mike Talbot Adventure)

Published Date: 01/15/2011
Pages: 350



Author Information: Mark Tufo was born in Boston Massachusetts. He attended UMASS Amherst where he obtained a BA and later joined the US Marine Corp. He was stationed in Parris Island SC, Twenty Nine Palms CA and Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. After his tour he went into the Human Resources field with a worldwide financial institution and has gone back to college at CTU to complete his masters.


Overview: Set on the biggest stage of his life, Michael Talbot must fight for his very survival and for the lives of those he loves.  As Mike enters into his freshman year at college a woman named Beth immediately captivates him. Beth proceeds to take him down a whirlwind path of love, betrayal and death.  At the onslaught of an alien invasion Mike is thrust into gladiatorial games to satisfy the bloodlust of the Genogerians and give knowledge to those who hold the true power of the Progerians.

Review:  I am a big fan of Mark's Zombie Fallout series.  That series is about the zombie apocalypse and the main character in it is Mike Talbot.  When I heard about Indian Hill, I was confused.  Just how much trouble can one person get into?   Don't get me wrong, Mike Talbot is a trouble magnet.  Is he in an alien invasion and the zombie apocalypse?  Really?!?

Mark explains that they are the same person, yet different and have nothing to do with each other.  Ummm… 'kay.  I just went with it.  I loved Mike Talbot in the zombie series.

The book starts in Mike's early high school years and quickly moves forward to his college days.  While he is at a concert at Red Rocks in Colorado, he and most of the concert-goers are abducted by aliens.

Mike and about four thousand others are pitted against each other in a gladiatorial style death match.  In the end, there can be only one.  Two men enter.. one man leaves.  Mark describes the combat scenes well, and each one is different.  Luckily, the book isn't too long because it was just repeating.  Fight, rest and heal, fight, rest and heal… ect.

The majority of the book is from Mike's point of view.  There are a couple of scenes taken from Mike's friend, Paul, point of view.  Paul is outside and wants to avenge is friend and fight off the aliens who are doing nothing vs. the rest of the earth.  Paul is certain that Mike and his friends are all dead.  The aliens have just been sitting there for months, and he is recruiting his own private militia of like-minded individuals willing to fight off the alien invasion.  Paul is certain that they are going to invade.  The rest of the scenes are from the President of the United States.  He, and the rest of the earth, has been warned not to interfere or attack.  If they do, there will be dire consequences.

As the book comes to a close, Mike's story starts to take a back seat to the rest.  You can see that Mark has big plans for the upcoming books.

Overall, I liked the book.  It really started to bog down in the death matches.  Mark has written two other Indian Hill novels, and I am sure that I will read them as well.  I am very interested to see what Mark has in store for Mike and the rest of them.