The Three by Sarah Lotz

I saw this book in all francophone bookstores, describe like an incredible phenomenon... but I had never heard of this book on the English side. So I bought the electronic version in English to see if that book is actually phenomenal.

I liked how Sarah Lotz describes how people would react to such an event. All the ultra religious, the alien people, the conspiracy people and the nut jobs are doing a great job trying to convince people of their truth. 

If a situation such as described in this book really arrived, I do not doubt that we would see that kind of madness (we just have to remember the madness about 2000 and the end of the world...) 

Sarah Lotz creates a very realistic story from this point of view and describes wonderfully the political stakes and wars of power generated by the 4 plane crashes. 

The narrative has a hashed side, because it consists of extracts from newspapers, interviews and reflections one after the other. This forces us to deduce some things, which I appreciated. On the other hand, and I understand that it is hard not to let anything pass, but it lacks some explanations to the story. 

I did not like the end as THE ultimate answer - which is to know what the three are - is, in my opinion, sloppy. After pages to hear the opinions of the different protagonists, one finds oneself with the so-called truth balanced at the last moment, without explanation and this truth seems a little too easy and too deja-vu. 

The characters are well written and I felt close to them, but I did not fully understand the interest of the story of the Ice Princess, who was an interesting character until the end. 

In a nutshell, a novel that reads well with a lot of promising ideas but disappointing at the end.

What's the story ?

Around the world, at almost the same time, four passenger airplanes plummet to the earth. There are no survivors, apart from three children (on three separate planes) and a woman who soon dies but not before leaving a recorded message that warns listeners to “watch the dead people.” The young survivors, soon dubbed The Three by the press, become worldwide sensations, even as some begin to suspect something is not quite right about them. Theories about The Three start to spread: they’re harbingers of doom, says one theory, the embodiments of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; no, says another, they were chosen for survival by our reptilian alien overlords. As it turns out, no one has any real notion of just how important and dangerous these children really are.