THE WAR BEGINS with PROJECT HYPERION, the fourth book of the Nemesis series. In this book, we are introduced to a robot called, Hyperion, two new monsters, Giger and Lovecraft, and two alien races, the Aeros and the Ferox, who are at war with each other over the fate of mankind. Sadly, this is the weakest out of the five books.
Continuing where PROJECT 731 left off, Jon Hudson, the director of the Home Land Security paranormal sector, is preparing for an invasion with the help of the Ferox. At the same time, two objects fall from the sky revealing them to be space monsters that the Aeros sent down to begin the invasion. Hyperion, an ancient Atlantean robot built for fighting giant monsters, is discovered in Russia and is activated by Maigo. With Maigo being Hyperion's pilot, she uses the robot to help Nemesis fight the space monsters, Giger and Lovecraft, long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The story was so crammed with references of the author's other books that it becomes very confusing to understand unless you read them all. Most of the book references KRONOS, RAISING THE PAST, ISLAND 731, and the SECOND WORLD series, most of them I have never read. I don't mind cross overs, but there is just too much going on at once. On top of that, it also makes the story seem like the author was running out of ideas. This is especially true with the monsters basically being carbon copies of Cthulhu, a giant bipedal monster with an octopus for a face and wings from H.P. Lovecraft's short story, CALL OF CTHULHU, and the xenomorph alien from the ALIEN series. The story reveals more about Nemesis's origins and her past finding out that her former self is the one that is responsible for destroying Atlantis and was created by the Aeros for the same reason Lovecraft and Giger were created only to be killed off by Hyperion during her rampage. With Katsu Endo, the biggest kaiju fan in the world, being Nemesis's new voice of conscience help's Nemesis to block out those memories. I thought this was the only interesting part of the book because you get find out what motivates Nemesis in the first place and how the robot was used for.
Lovecraft and Giger are exactly what I described them in my last paragraph. Both of them are carbon copies of Cthulhu and the xenomorph alien. Even in the book when Lovecraft was revealed while rising from the ocean, one of the helicopter pilots was shouting, "It's f!@$ing Cthulhu!" Thank god for Matt Frank's illustrations on the back of the book because let's be honest, while any fan of monsters or H.P. Lovecraft would know who Cthulhu is the general readers that are not fans of the stories probably wouldn't know. Sure, the story does go into small details like having a clear body, wings, and walks on all fours like an ape, but that isn't even clear enough as to what the monster looks like. As for Giger, the poor thing gets the freaking shaft on how many times it appears in the book. It appears once to fight three monsters that appeared in PROJECT MAIGO and then the second time to fight with Nemesis and Hyperion. That's it. Lovecraft made more appearances than Giger. Between the two monsters Giger was the most interesting one in my opinion because of how quick and unpredictable it is. It doesn't rely on stealth, but on speed.
PROJECT HYPERION is a pure mess with the lack of originality that originally started with PROJECT NEMESIS. I'm sure that it is hard to come up with anything original when writing a story, but there is just too much cross over references of Jeremy Robinson's other books that it becomes confusing unless you read them. Lovecraft and Giger are also the result of the author's lack of creativity and the story lacks the description of these monsters. Unless you are really desperate to find what happens to Nemesis in the story, I say it is a definite skip. I am just hoping that PROJECT LEGION, fixes these problems.
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