BOSTON IS IN RUINS!; THE NATION'S CAPITOL IS NEXT!
Following up after Project Nemesis, Project Maigo takes place a few months after the events of the first book. In the last book, it ended with Boston being completely destroyed and the only way Jon Hudson could end Nemesis's reign of destruction was to offer up the murderer of the girl, Maigo, as a sacrific. Project Maigo is the beginning of where more of the sci-fi aspect start to come into play more than the horror aspect. This time, Nemesis isn't the only monster and she becomes more of the anti - hero of the story. That is what I like about the characters as well. You also have characters that you don't really expect them to turn out to be the good guy because they are all out for their own gain. For instance, Jon Hudson wants to prevent more monster attacks from happening by doing it the conventional way with jets, tanks, etc. and there is this monster fanatic, Katsu Endo, that wants to take control of monsters like Nemesis to prevent more attacks from monsters. They are both after two different goals, but the results they want become aligned later on.
Project Maigo may be my most favorite book out of the whole series. It really digs into more detail on who Maigo is, why Nemesis chose to protect the main characters, and how Nemesis interacts with her surroundings and other monsters. You find out that Maigo is like Nemesis's conscience. She tells Nemesis what she should be doing, who to attack, who to protect, so on and so forth. One problem I had was that the ending really felt like that this was the final book. It ended with a happy ending and there was not going to be anything left for the story. Then there are books 3-5 and it made me wonder where the heck did these come from. So the only thing I would change is the ending at least hinting to a continuation of the story.
The five new monsters are very reminiscent of Nemesis on looks and personality in a way that they are just out to destroy anyone in their way, mainly Jon Hudson and Nemesis. What makes them also stand out though is that they are being controlled by General Gordon, the real antagonist of the first two books. What I like about General Gordon's character is that you sort of follow him as he goes through this metamorphosis to something non-human and slides down a slippery slope to insanity. He thinks of himself as a god and that nothing can hurt him, but he hates Jon with a passion. Jon just has to get in the way of his plans and snoop around everywhere. What is worse for General Gordon is that Jon now has Nemesis on his side to protect him when a monster attacks. So he turns the final battle into an all out brawl of the monsters in D.C.
So all in all, the book is a good read. The book really shows where the author draws his inspiration from and puts in his passion for the giant monster movies into a story of its own. Project Maigo is definitely the perfect follow up to Project Nemesis.