For all its strengths in telling a really compelling and suspenseful story, The Second Ship made me realize how absolutely crucial believable dialogue is to character development and overall enjoyment and suspension of disbelief.

The primary trio of antagonists -- Jennifer, Heather, and Mark -- all speak to each other in a manner that's stilted, contrived, and serves mainly to advance the narrative instead of help the reader latch onto these characters. Teenagers simply don't talk this way (not even remotely), and the majority of their conversations end up being jarring. If not for the exposition their conversations deliver, every line would be skippable. I really hope the sequels remedy this.

I found the internal ramblings (and to an extent, the actions) of characters like Priest and Stephenson far more engaging than our leads.

The rest? Totally praiseworthy. The way Phillips builds all these intersecting plots and supporting characters to a violent collision course is exciting and kept me turning the pages with anticipation despite the groan-worthy conversations between the teenage leads.

Phillips' also has great descriptive capabilities, really pulling me into the effects of the alien technologies, and dishing out some downright riveting action scenes that are just violent enough without devolving into needless gore.

The core of this story is well worth experiencing, and Phillips has built an intriguing "aliens among us" world that I want to keep exploring. Just hope he delivers some realistic dialogue going forward.