Alien Hunter (and alien) Daniel X continues to work on hunting down the most grievous evil aliens on Earth with this third edition in the series, which seems to be a cheap rip-off of Men in Black with a teen protagonist. Daniel's next target is Number Three on the List of Alien Outlaws. Number Three is a fire-based lifeform, who seems to have a more personal connection to Daniel than he realized. This is less than thrilling for our hero, who has a major fear of fire.

Along for the ride, Daniel's imaginary friends help out as they can. The fact that they are imaginary doesn't seem to prevent them from being a real assistance, particularly as it starts to become clear that they might not be just figments of Daniel's imagination as he recreates dead childhood friends from his homeworld.

Daniel is forced into extreme measures as he takes on his toughest opponent to date, and finds himself back in the early Middle Ages to learn the secrets he needs to defeat Number 3 in today's world. While in the past, he will get to play a major role in some well-known British lore.

There is no question that the Daniel X books are fast paced and full of action. Not only is that the norm for Patterson, but it really produces an easy read. Unfortunately, like so many of his other teen novels (outside of the Maximum Ride series), this seems to be more of an outline to a novel than a book itself. There is almost no character development for Daniel, and his supporting cast is filled with flat characters that hold no meaning except to be placeholders. The alien villains seem to have almost no reason to be doing harm to earth except that Daniel needs someone to hunt down. When he does meet them, these level-bosses, who are supposed to be impossible to beat, are finished up in about 20 pages. That sorta feels a bit anti-climactic.

The good news is these are quick, easy, and fun. But this, like the earlier books in the series is pure fluff that doesn't really fill you up.