Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel

I have read all three books in this series and have enjoyed them all. The charterers are well thought out with personal behavior you would see in your friends making them more real than some books I have read. The computer network tech in the series is plausible in our world today to some extent if only it was developed. Making me wish I had the implant to really have hands free cell calls! What really gets me is the medical tech since I am a retired 82nd Paratrooper and suffer from chronic pain from the many parachute jumps through the years and the author has let me into what could be with realist nano and other treatments that are just being investigated by our scientist. Oh I wish I could have a shot of nano's and get rid of this pain.

Power is shifting away from Earth. Tanusha, capital of Callay, is vying to be the new center of the Federation, but conservative elements of the Fleet hover about the planet's stations, crucial for trade, and threaten a take-over. Meanwhile, plots and intrigues abound planet-side, one of which is directed towards Commander Cassandra Kresnov, a super-intelligent, super-powered, nearly indestructible combat android who has left the League, which created her, and is now one of the trusted aids to Callayan President Neiland, and one of those in charge of the Callayan Defence Force. Sandy, to her her friends, is outwardly a gorgeous blond with a best friend, Major Vanessa Rice, also of the CDF, and a lover, Ari, who happens to be a special agent who hears that Sandy may have a built-in Killswitch that will immediately kill her if activated. Then she is ambushed by several Mobile Anti-Personnel bots... leading to suspicion of some infiltration of the Callayan Government. And then someone tries to use the Killswitch--causing Sandy to cut herself off from the network that could trace her position and make her vulnerable to being close enough for someone to use the Killswitch on her--and go undercover, even though she has one of the most well-known faces on Callay. Sandy and Ari and Vanessa and her friends and aids need to find out who is behind the attempt on her life, and also who and what in the government has been compromised, who is behind assassination and sabotage undermining Callay and the Federation and trying to precipitate war... and why there is a rogue GI as powerful as Sandy but without her humanity and heart, but otherwise so similar they could be sisters, running amok. Lots of action, fighting, hand-to-hand, between Sandy and the war-bots and Sandy and the other GI and on the space stations by teams... and some quieter philosophy and introspection about life and love and pacifism and conflict. And political and military maneuvering. Interesting characters and situations and decent futuristic world-building. This is a solid and enjoyable read.

This is the third in a series of titles featuring everybody's favorite synthetic person, Cassandra Kresnov. Created by one of two competing interstellar political entities, The League, she is an experimental, very high intellect GI: a soldier, a leader, a surfer, a completely synthetic living thinking independantly motivated creature in the likeness of a beautiful athletic woman, just faster, stronger, more electronically capable and almost infinitely more deadly than normal humans or "straights" as they are known to GI's. As she grew up (she's 17 in this one, I think), she began to question the system that created her, it's motives, its treatment of all GI's but especially the "Regs" (low intelligence cannon fodder, so to speak), and all the blood on her own highly capable monomer hands. Shepherd sets the trilogy (so far) on one of the Federation's (the other political entity) worlds where Sandy (as her friends call her) has secretly defected just as the League/Federation war itself comes to an end and eventually the League government that made her collapses. At first Kresnov tries to just blend in as a private citizen using her superior network interfacing capability to earn her way, only to get caught up in a plot against her by rogue Federation Intelligence types, then a plot to kill the President of her adopted homeworld using "bollowed" Reg GI's, and in this episode a plot by the same Federation spooks with help from shadow figures from the League in the form of one of Cassandra's initial "creators" and Jane, a "sister" that she never suspected she had, to eliminate Sandy and bring down the Federation reform elements led by the same Callayan President they tried to kill before. Running at least parallel to, if not interwoven with that plot, is the presence of Fifth Fleet in Callayan orbit and occupying its economic lifesblood, its space stations. Opposing them, but trying not to start a shooting war with its own brothers is Third Fleet, loyal to Federation civil authorities and led by a tall Texas born maverick Captain. Tension is everywhere. Action abounds. All in a day's work for Commander Cassandra Kresnov, CDF. Along the way, Shepherd has created an interesting world, interesting characters, and asks interesting questions about sentience, what it means to be "human", morals, war, political conflict, love, and life. The action can be intense and quite reasonable, which in Sci Fi really only means halfway plausible and internally consistent. The series is uniformly well written and a real page turner. Don't start one of these an hour before bedtime if you've got anything important first thing next morning. I thought the interaction in this volume between Sandy and Jane was fascinating, especially in light of the killswitch issue, and the eventual resolution of their inevitable showdown, which I won't give away. Adding texture to that is Sandy's relationship with Rhian Chu, one of her former Dark Star mates with whom sh

You will not be disappointed if you like your action to rock and roll, this series if for you. Love all three of this guy's books.

In the far future, genetically altered soldier Commander Cassandra "Sandy" Kresnov has become second-in-command of the Callayan Defense Force. The job would be extremely difficult under any conditions, but is made geometrically impossible since President Neiland has strongly pushed making Tanusha, capital of Callay into the capital city of the Federation. Earth military and political leaders are outraged by the affront Neiland proposes, especially since they write the orb off as a backwater second rate world stealing their power and influence. They send the Federation Fleet which surrounds the planet and occupies Callay's space stations; irritating the Callayan people who fully support the maintenance workers refusing to repair the outsiders' vessels. War seems imminent although Sandy hopes not; she also worries that a mole has gained access to her forces, but while she tries to uncover the double agent, she must deal with a GI who looks like her sister's twin. Special Agent Ari Ruben learns that an assassin is sent by The Alliance to eliminate Sandy by turning on the KILLSWITCH embedded in her brain. The third Cassandra Kresnov futuristic science fiction thriller (see CROSSOVER and BREAKAWAY) is an exciting outer space tale. The story line is fast-paced as the subplots focus on how far individuals and groups will go to maintain or gain power. Sandy has become the focus point of the two acerbic sides, but to survive she must hide; yet if she goes underground, the chances of the Federation's military succeeding in an all out assault is increased dramatically as she is one of the CDF's key leaders. Joel Shepherd's fans will not be disappointed with this superb Kresnov novel. Harriet Klausner