Volume 3 brings the Colossus story to a close even more implausibly than the narrative in volume 2. It seems that the Martian invaders - which are strange energy creatures that can take any form they wish - have invaded because they want to steal half of Earth's oxygen to create an atmosphere for Mars. Firstly, Mars lacks an atmosphere because it doesn't have the gravity to retain one and secondly, if they are not really material beings why do they need oxygen anyway? It seems this is to block out some kind of harmful ray emanating from the Crab Nebula. As the ending suggests they didn't need to take the oxygen all in one go and could manage a small amount gradually over many years, their haste and lack of concern for the damage done by their device when used at full blast is pretty incomprehensible.

At least the misogyny is turned down in this as Forbin's wife is offstage in all of this, just mentioned as not wanting to come back to him because she has been brainwashed by Colossus' experiment to find out whether a continually raped woman would come to 'love' her attacker. And Forbin does gradually return somewhat to the more dynamic and decisive character of volume 1. A racist stereotype of the Italian engineer throws in every cliche going, with a phonetic representation of how the man is supposed to speak.

Angela, Forbin's secretary, has a chance to prove her worth despite the obligatory trope that she is madly in love with Forbin, but of course is treated in a derogatory fashion. At least Blake's treatment by the Martians makes him a more thoughtful and less plain awful character. But the idea that the only way to save the day is to revive the more primitive Colossus I - which then proves non co-operative anyway - and this will lead to the rebuilding of the greater machine which surely would result in the reinstatement of a dictatorial slave status for humankind makes a mockery of the whole thing.

On the whole, only book 1 in this series has any real merit, and this one only scrapes up 2 stars mainly for the sequences aboard the robotic WWI battleships. ( )

The final novel in D. F. Jones’s “Colossus Trilogy” picks up where the last one left off, with Charles Forbin – the creator of Colossus, the supercomputer that took over the world five years before – and his assistant Edward Blake awaiting the arrival of the Martians who provided them with the means of shutting down the computer. When they appear, they soon reveal that the aid they supplied was to remove the one obstacle to their plan, which is to re-oxygenate Mars by taking half of the Earth’s atmosphere. Facing the devastation of the planet and the deaths of millions, Forbin and Blake are forced to undertake a plan that is Earth’s only hope of defeating the Martians – the reactivation of their former overlord, Colossus.

Having described the computer-run future he created in his last novel, The Fall of Colossus, in this one Jones concentrates on the plot and his antagonists. The Martians he describes are well imagined by the author, and many of the best parts of the novel center around their interaction with Forbin and his efforts to comprehend them. In many ways they are better realized than most of the humans, as some of the secondary characters are little better than ethnic stereotypes. The challenge the aliens pose is also well developed, providing an impending threat that Jones conveys well with effective visualization and pacing. In all it provides for a satisfying end for an occasionally overshadowed, yet enjoyably entertaining series. ( )