The Xenocide Mission

by Ben Jeapes

Book Overview

Space opera is back with a bang! Lieutenant Joel Gilmore is part of a space observation team who find themselves attacked by the very aliens they are watching. It becomes a race against time for their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385750072
• ISBN13: 9780385750073
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: David Fickling Books
• Length: 387 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.4" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

sometimes great, but sometimes boring

The "Xenocide Mission" by Ben Jeapes is a great book with mystery, suspense, and thrills, but at times, it gets boring. Don't let this discourage you the book is very good and has a very good story and a lot of actions that creates suspense and makes the reader want to continue reading. But the book got a little boring at times when the setting was calm. The thing I liked the best about the book is that it is told in third person point of view and the story was told through three main characters and their thoughts. I thought that it was a very nice story telling device to tell the story through the lives of three characters, and I liked how two of those characters were related and yet so far apart. One was a commander of the alien race known as the Xenocides or "XC". Other than it being boring at times during the story, the book is very readable and has a really decent appeal to grab the reader in. I mostly recommend this to people who love to read science fiction books.

Fine YA adventure with interesting speculation about alien races

The Xenocide Mission, by Ben Jeapes, marketed as a Young Adult book, and works very well as such, though it is fully enjoyable foradults, in my view. (The lead characters include two humans in their early twenties, as well as a much older human, and an apparently much older alien.) This novel opens on the joint Human/First Breed satellite called SkySpy, which is monitoring the fearsome aliens known as the Xenocides, or XCs, because they brutally exterminated the other intelligent species in their solar system. Young Joel Gilmore and his First Breed (or "Rustie") partner Boon Round are making an external repair when the XCs mount a surprise attack. The first priority is to ensure destruction of the computer banks and the removal of any chance of the XCs gaining FTL technology. Joel, thrust into a leadership role all of a sudden, heroically returns to the satellite with Boon Round while the rest of the survivors make their escape. Soon Joel and Boon Round are captives of the Xenocides. One of the key Xenocides is Oomoing, a senior Mother of the Scientific Institute of one of their nations. She is summoned to SkySpy to study Joel and Boon Round. We learn that the Xenocides are fierce carnivores, and very warlike in basic orientation, but also that they are intelligent and not, on the face of it, xenocidal. Also, there is some strange mystery concerning the "Dead World", former home of the race the XCs exterminated. And as Oomoing tries to make peaceful contact with Joel and Boon Round, they get the chance to escape -- but only to the Dead World, and with Oomoing and another XC along. Meanwhile, a rescue mission is organized from the Roving, home planet of the Commonwealth of Humans and First Breed. Joel Gilmore's father, Michael, a retired Commodore, and Joel's girlfriend, Marine Lieutenant Donna McCallum, in their different ways wangle themselves onto the mission. Once in XC space, the mission takes an unexpected turn, as the Xenocides attack and the Commonwealth ship is thrown into chaos by the treachery of an Earth-based observer and the only survivor of the race that formerly dominated the First Breed. (All this refers to back story which is presumably told in His Majesty's Starship.) Another xenocide is threatened, and so is the potential for cooperation among at least four alien races. Only if Joel, Boon Round, and Oomoing can come to terms with their mutually alien natures and work together to understand the mystery of the Dead World can this danger be averted. This book is very enjoyable, a brisk, entertaining read, with some pretty neat alien races. It's a bit cynical about politics, both human and alien, but not in a hopeless way, rather a fairly realistic way. It might be too busy, with too many strange alien mysteries revealed, and too many plots within plots uncovered. Still, I liked it. It certainly might appeal to its intended audience of "Young Adults" -- and it will also appeal to adult readers of SF looking for a fine adventu

A Great Mission

"The Xenocide Mission" written by Ben Jeapes. This is a book where your imagination travels as you read, and understand this thrilling, and amazing book. This book is about an out space mission, which the crew of an asteroid named SkySpy have been sent to watch some kind of different life beings, whose technologies, and weapons are supreme or beyond than any of the Earth's. These extraterrestrial beings are called "Xenocides", but also known as "XCs". They are rich not only in technology, and weapons, but they are also aggressive to their enemies. The "Big Scope" is also one of the many surveillance equipment items, which goes around the SkySpy asteroid. The SkySpy is a supposedly secret base where Lieutenant Joel Gilmore is one of the main characters who work in the maintenance of the SkySpy. He was the only one who first saw the glowing white spots in the space, and then he thought that they were being attacked by some military strength laser, but the fact was that they was being attacked by the aliens they were supposed to watch. While the days pass more action is coming throughout each page such as battles, fights between the SkySpy crew, then they get closely to the XCs, and a lot more! Of course, with a peaceful ending. My recommendations of this book goes to the people who like stories of aliens, and out space missions mixed with mystery and a lot of action, which brings you not only to a different point of life, but also to a different world.

A great mission

"The Xenocide Mission" written by Ben Jeapes. In this book your imagination travels as you read and understand this thrilling and amazing book. This book is about an outer space mission, in which the crew of an asteroid, named SkySpy, have been sent to watch different life beings, whose technologies, and weapons are supreme or beyond than any of the Earth's. These extraterrestrial beings are called "Xenocides", but also known as "XCs". They are rich not only in technology, and weapons, but they are also aggressive to their enemies. The "Big Scope" is one of the many surveillance equipment items, which goes around the SkySpy asteroid. The SkySpy is a secret base where Lieutenant Joel Gilmore, one of the main characters, works on the maintenance of the SkySpy. He was the first one to see the glowing white spots in the space, and he thought that some military strength laser was attacking them, but in fact the aliens they were supposed to watch were attacking them. While you read throughout each page the action unfurls, such as battles, fights between the SkySpy crew, they get close to the XCs, and a lot more! Of course, with a peaceful ending. My recommendations of this book goes to those that like stories of aliens, and outer space missions, mixed with mystery and a lot of action, that brings you not only to a different point of life, but also a different world.

Quick action and a complex plot

The Xenocide Mission appears under a Random House young adult trademark but its complexity will lend to its enjoyment by many an adult science fiction reader, as well. Joel is part of a space observation team that is attacked by the aliens they are observing. Trapped and awaiting rescue, they find fresh, new and dangerous insights on the aliens they had investigated previously from outside. Quick action and a complex plot makes The Xenocide Mission recommended for older young adults into adults.