The book tells the story of a soldier named Amar and his troop. Ill be honest and say that not a great deal of stuff actually happens. In my opinion the book is very light on actual story and lore. It sort of tries to be a bit of thriller. But it falls very short of the mark in my opinion.
Amar happens across a character who had some affiliation with Xcom back in the days of the resistance. He was trying to get some data to an undisclosed person when he was ambushed by ADVENT. Amar and his troop agree to help him find this person. On the way, they meet a girl named Lena who had left one of the new cities in order to find her sister, who has actually died. Lena, like most of the human population who lived in the cities, had been enticed there by the aliens, who have set the cities up to try and concentrate the human population and keep humanity under their auspices. Lena was quite dependent on this way of life, as the many settlements that exist outside of the ADVENT cities were poor places with limited access to food and medicine. Living in the city humans were encouraged to submit themselves to gene therapy.
It so transpires that the contact the person was trying to meet was Dr Shen and his daughter Lily. Shen survived the first war and was trying to find a way of continuing the resistance. He was situated on a submarine named the Elpis. The data they were carrying needed to be interpreted by a scientist, and so Shen suggested that they try and find his old xcom colleague Dr Vahlen. This they manage to do, and Vahlen was holed up on a frozen island in the atlantic, doing many questionable research projects.
During their stay, they are ambushed by ADVENT, who had been tracking them through Lena, who had a chip implanted into her when she lived in the city. The base is largely destroyed and Vahlen escapes. But Amars team have been cut off from returning to the Elpis. He also loses a soldier to a chryssalid. They steal a rowing boat and try to make it to where Vahlen told them they might find an alien ship from the data they showed her. The location is India in the Ghat mountains.
On the way, they are attacked yet again by an ADVENT patrol boat, but it is destroyed by the Elpis, which makes a return. The team hook back up with the Shens, and they discover that doctor Shen is ill after escape from Vahlens base. And so they continue on to India, but just as they get close, Lily Shen gets captured by ADVENT. Amar tries to rescue her and loses a number of his men in the process. But succeeds and Lily is reunited with her father. At this time, they also run acorss an old military supply base tied to XCOM from the olden days. In the hanger they find a damaged skyranger. The original had been shot down in the first war and this was the prototype of a replacement, but XCOM was shelved before it was finished. Lily tries to fix it, and whilst this is happening, we learn of something called THE CONTAGION. Which is some sort of mysterious disease the aliens and ADVENT appear to be afraid of.
Finally they reach India and locate the alien ship, which doctor Shen calls THE AVENGER. But it doesnt work. In order to use it, they need an alien component. So Amar and Lena infiltrate an ADVENT city together. They locate the missing part that will make the avenger work and escape from the city, but not without Amar losing yet another soldier, this time to a Viper.
Shen installs the component and the ship begins to take shape. But there is one room (the Eugenics room) that the team were unable to inspect, with it being locked. Then one night, the ship is attacked from within. First drones are sent in, then a group of sectoids who were in cryosleep infiltrate the ship and kill numerous personnel. Lena, who had married Amar by this time and was dying of cancer, sacrifices herself by blowing herself up and killing all the sectoids.
Dr Shen was injured in the battle, and a couple of days after the battle he passed away. Lily Shen was now in charge and she completed the Avenger.
And that is the end. I guess this is where Xcom 2 will pick up from.
OVERALL OPINION: I would give the book a 3 out of 10. There are one or two mildly exciting bits. But all in all I think it was pretty rubbish. It was light on lore, many of the things which happened were cheesy or didnt really make sense. And it smacked of a cash grab. It certainly wasnt a very well thought out story or terribly well written. So my suggestion is that you should wait for the game and go and read something decent. My personal recommendation would be the book released by my brother in law, which I found much more entertaining and well written:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Whispers-Storm-Volume-The-Trilogy/dp/149440012X
