When the Dust Fell by Marshall Ross

​I’m the first to rate and review this book. Wish I liked it more. But let’s go with the best policy on this.
When the Dust Fell is one of those perfect examples of a book I should have by all right loved and didn’t. It checks so many boxes: dystopia, sci-fi, survivor story. The entire thing is essentially a heroic journey or quest or one of those. And yet, for some reason, much like dust, it fell completely flat for me.
This is quite likely one of those very personal, very subjective book/reader disconnects so please take it as such. Objectively, the book was competently done, solidly written and all that.
The story goes like that – a spaceship is found randomly beneath the sea. Lo and behold – ancient aliens. For real, people. An ancient alien race of perfectly humanoid beings that seeded the Earth. And they are from a very uninspiredly named planet Origen. Right in time to watch the earthlings destroy themselves through war and subsequent devastation.
The intrepid protagonist of the novel is navigating this world the best she can – by shacking up with a hunky alien dude. And then she gets the idea to go save her sister whom she hadn’t seen in years and so she sets off on this epic journey amid the devastated US.
Meanwhile, Manhattan has been taken over by one of those classic antagonist-type dudes, all charisma and evilness, who declared the place his Kingdom. Then man wants some alien technology to add to his arsenal and one of his minions offers to get it for him, through a woman he heard about once, a woman who cohabitates with the aliens.
Their trajectories very, very slowly and unevenly go from parallel lines to meeting ones. And then there’s a confrontation – inevitable because, among other things, the alien dude is quite a romantic.
So, that’s the book. Not especially original, in a way that most of the major plotlines are recognizable from other sources. Not especially dynamic, quite slow, in fact. Not especially engaging, either, but then again, that may be a personal thing.
Overall, didn’t really work for me and read long. User mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.