A review by tasharobinson
Ex-Communication by Peter Clines

3.0

For me, this was easily the most enjoyable of the Ex- books. Most of the world-building and character-establishing is done by this point, so apart from one significant new character introduced here, the book is free to charge straight ahead into a great deal of satisfying action, seemingly resolving at least one dangling plot thread from the first book, and bringing in several more organically. These remain pretty conceptually simple superhero-comic-book novels, packed with heroes and villains and lots and lots of action scenes. But they're full of quick reversals, and they move along nicely. This one isn't going to convert anyone who had problems with the previous books — if anything, it's even more dismissive of a vast percentage of humanity, with all the human characters as background noise, usually being shrill and annoying with their religious beliefs or pesky misunderstandings of everything that's going on. They remind me of the low-level characters on Lost, the ones who only assert themselves when the story needs a frustrated mob or a victim. But this particular volume focuses much more exclusively on hero-level problems and solutions, and much less on navigating the tricky, difficult waters of human/superhero interaction in a world where all of the important and significant characters are superheroes. In many ways it's a less ambitious book than the previous two, less concerned with illustrating a believable post-apocalyptic society, and more focused on determined people up against a seemingly impossible enemy. Short, simple, and satisfying.