Killswitch (Cassandra Kresnov Novels) [Paperback]

Joel Shepherd (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cassandra Kresnov Novels | Publication Date: November 6, 2007

Two years after the unhatching of Callayan President Neiland's plot to make the capital city of Tanusha the center of the Federation, Callay is under siege. So begins the third instalment of this gripping trilogy from an exciting new sci-fi author. A powerful faction of conservative Fleet captains has surrounded Callay, at Earth's behest, and is threatening a blockade - or worse. A fearful Earth does not wish to lose direct control of its precious war machine, and there are fears of civil war. All that Callay has to oppose the warships of the Fleet is the Callayan Defence Force (CDF) - a newly formed group of raw recruits led by a politically hamstrung general.However, the CDF is largely trained and organised by Major Vanessa Rice and her best friend, Callay's combat-android, Commander Cassandra Kresnov. But when Cassandra's lover, Special Agent Ari Ruben, discovers a plot to kill her using a killswitch, which her old masters in the League built into her brainstem, Sandy is forced to go underground to stay alive.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The tense third Cassandra Kresnov novel (after Breakaway) further develops the series' intriguing far-future setting. Cdr. Cassandra Sandy Kresnov, a GI genetically engineered to be a crack soldier and spy, is now second-in-command of the Callayan Defense Force: a tough job, especially now that President Neiland has nearly succeeded in making Callay's capital city, Tanusha, into the new Federation capital. Earth doesn't look kindly on this upstart world taking away its last claim to fame, and loyalists from the Federation Fleet have occupied Callay's space stations. With dock workers refusing to service Fleet ships and civil war threatening to break out, the last thing Sandy needs is to be targeted for death. She suspects someone has infiltrated Callay's security forces, but even as she struggles to uncover the spy, a rogue GI similar enough to be her sister appears, testing Sandy to the limit. Robert Ludlum meets Elizabeth Moon in this classic military SF adventure, buoyed by Shepherd's knack for balancing crisp action with characters you can really root for. (Nov.)
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Review

"An awesomely zesty adventure set amongst a nicely realized multiethnic future. A blast to read." -- Tobias S. Buckell, author of Crystal Rain

"Cassandra Kresnov is a compelling addition to the world of science fiction's femmes fatales." -- Marianne de Pierres, author of the Parrish Plessis series

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 451 pages
• Publisher: Pyr (November 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591025982
• ISBN-13: 978-1591025986
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,186,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GI Jane meets Cassandra, January 8, 2008

By 

G. D. Geiss (Harrisburg, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Killswitch (Cassandra Kresnov Novels) (Paperback)

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 she was unexpectedly reunited at the end of the prior book (Breakaway), as well as Chu's own surprising development in the intervening two years: imagine, if you will, a battle tested synthetic soldier near as deadly as Kresnov herself discovering an abiding love of children, wondering what kind of mother she'd make, and contemplating adoption.

These books are well worth the read. I find them to be among the best SciFi offerings of the past few years with both lots of action and philosophical speculation a la Issac Assimov or Poul Anderson. Great stuff as GI Jane meets Cassandra.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel, July 3, 2008

By 

James M. Gibbens "gabby" (Fayetteville, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Killswitch (Cassandra Kresnov Novels) (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Characters Get a Little Bogged Down, April 24, 2008

By 

T. Karr "mild-mannered accountant" (MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Killswitch (Cassandra Kresnov Novels) (Paperback)

First, if you have not read "Crossover," the first Cassandra Kresnov novel, don't bother with "Killswitch." You will miss too much necessary background to fully enjoy this third installment.

Cassandra was designed to be the ultimate military fighting machine with a created intelligence manufactured by the League. She also happens to be a sculpted, beautiful blonde. As readers of the first two novels know "Sandy" has evolved beyond the parameters of her original design specs. She has become human in her thought processes and her ability to experience emotions.

Sandy's boyfriend, Ari, has discovered that Sandy's designers incorporated a killswitch in Sandy that will knock her dead if the code is activated. Further, there appears to be a new military presence on the planet of Callay that threatens to upset the precarious political balance that has been achieved.

Things become even more interesting when the scientist most responsible for Sandy's design just happens to be found illegally visiting Callay at the same time. Sandy and her colleagues try to find what and who are behind the unsettling events that are taking place on Callay while trying to keep Sandy safe.

There is much more to "Killswitch", but I don't want to spoil any surprises. This 450 page novel has great potential, but too many pages are spent describing the politics of the Federation and the League. And way too many pages are spent describing the minutia of Sandy's various battles.

This novel has fantastic, futuristic characters and great themes such as "what makes us human?" I can heartily recommend the first Kresnov novel, but have strong reservations against investing your time on this third novel, "Killswitch." I found the lengthy battle descriptions and the constant intrusion of politics into the story to be quite tedious.