Customer Reviews

The Power Of Two (2176 Series, Book 4)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Though I'm not normally a reader of futuristics, Patti O'Shea is rapidly winning me over. I loved her first book, Ravyn's Flight, and this one is even stronger. The Power of Two is incredible! A lot of times, books billed as "action romance" usually favor one element over the other, but O'Shea has it all! Jake and Cai are an amazing and believable couple, and the progression of their realtionship is a delight to behold. Jake is everything you'd want in a hero, and Cai makes a fascinating heroine. O'Shea makes the intricate technical aspects of the story easy to follow. (Trust me, if I can, you can.) If you've read other books in this series, don't miss this one-- it's the best of the lot! But rest assured that the book stands alone well. I couldn't put it down!

I was surprised, having never read Patti O'Shea before, but I had read all of the other books in this series. Out of all of them, this is my favorite. I enjoyed the mental connection between the main characters and I wanted to vote my 5 stars. I am going to take a closer look at her other books now.

This is the best out of all four of the published books set in 2176. Although none of them are slouches, I have loved every one and congradulate the authors on building a really believeable world. Five books and five couples to change a world.

Cai Randolph is a member of a Quandem team. She has implants that allow her to access most, if not all, of the computers in this time. She then sends the information to her recep who is the leader of a special ops team. All the other teams have failed and as far as she knows, she and Jake are the last. She is the anchor and sits in her special apartment where she processes data and probabilities and sends them to the field ops.

Captain Jake Tucker is her recep, he is the leader of an elite fighting force in the UCE. Jake thinks Cai is a computer, he doesn't know she is human. They have worked together for five years.

Cai has other priorities. Her parents disappeared 6 years ago. She has been told they are dead, but she is sure they have been kiddnapped. When she thinks she has found where they are, she sets up an operation in that area. She is also determined to go along on this one. The operation is supposed to catch Banzai Macguire and Commander Armstrong. Cai intends to retrieve her parents. She is sure they were taken by an evil multi-millionaire because of their work with nanotechs to increase life spans.

First things first she must confront Jake and reveal who she is. Then she must convince him to let her go on the mission. Unknown to all, there is another Quantum team out there. Not to mention the part of the world they have to insert into. Also she and Jake could have their brains fried if she overloads her implants.
Even harder will be keeping her feelings for Jake hidden.

Jake is a man's man, but Cai is a strong woman. I liked these characters. They may get blocked but they always find a way around it.

The action is fast and furious and fits right into this 5 part series, I can't wait for the last installment.

Five books in the 2176 series, four writers, and each bringing their own distinctive style! Patti 0'Shea absolutely blew me away with her debut novel Ravyn's Flight. I mean that book was so absolutely amazing! I have been waiting to see her next work. She did not disappoint me! Added to the task of trying to measure up to the knockout first book, she had to work within a "bible", a series of books set up where they have to stay within certain perimeters. So it was with anticipation - but a dram of trepidation - as I waited for this book. O'Shea delivers. Oh, does she deliver! All four ladies make this series from start to finish top drawer, quality rarely seen in "bible" set ups.

Cai Randolph is part of a Quandem Team. To say this gal is "plugged-in" to the computer is an understatement! She's been implanted with technology that lets her access and communicate with computers 24/7. She then relays this information to her "recep", a leader of a Special Ops team. Captain Jake Tucker is Cai's recap. He's in charge of leading an elite force and is used to getting information from Cai - but thinks she's like Hal in 2001 - a computer. Cai keeps the team up-to-date. Jake is used to Cai feeding them data, sending them where they need to go. But he has no idea Cai is a real woman.

Several years ago, Cai's parents disappeared and were presumed dead. Cai has persisted in the belief they were not killed but kidnapped. When she has the information she is looking for, where they might be, she sets up Jake and his team to move into the area, determined to go along with them. The operation is supposedly to track down and capture Bree Macguire and her lover Commander Armstrong, but Cai could care less. She is after her parents and sees the insertion of the team as her chance.

Jake has to adjust his mindset when he is confronted with the very much in the flesh Cai. At first, he refuses to believe her, but she proves to him by sharing the intimate knowledge she possesses about him through the mind link. Jake does not like the idea of Cai being human instead of machine nor does he like the idea of taking her on the mission, but Cai is determined. As they work together, their connection on serves to increase their attraction to each other.

O'Shea's characters leap off the pages, they sizzle. As with Ravyn's Flight, O'Shea delivers strong male and female leads, remembers the romance, yet delivers one spellbinding tale of adventure.

2004 Reviewers International Organization's Award of Excellence Finalist

Of of this series, I've read the 3 middle books. Power of Two, Day of Fire, & Shadow Runners. I bought them w/o realizing that they were in a semi-5 book series. I did not buy the Susan Grant's book 1 or 5 because I don't normally like her books. It's not completely necessary to read the first book to understand the middle books. Only vague references are given to Banzai from the first book.

Out of the 3 books, I have read I enjoyed this book much more because there seemed to be much more emotion between the hero and the heroine than the other 2 books. The romance seemed more realistic because the characters had known each other in their minds for 5 years already.

The concept of Cai being able to tap into computers w/ her mind was interesting. I was a little surprised that w/ her being born a genious and all that she was not programming circles around the other anchor lady on the network, who was just described as an office drone.

Some questions were left open at the end of the book as where the villain escaped, the imprisonment of Banzai and her mate, why the villain's computer was semi-senitient and able to connect w/ Cai, and why the other anchors had all failed except Cai and the villains home made anchor.

Overall the book was good, I'm not sure if it's good enough to go on the Keeper Shelf to re-read, but it's worth reading as a stand alone. Where as the other books tended to lean more sci-fi. This book was a little bit more romantic inclined.

In 2176, Cai works for the United Colonies of Earth Army Special Forces and has since her parents vanished when she was a teen. She works from an office while her field partner Captain Jake Tucker carries out the mission. They communicate through telepathy using nanoprobes in the brain. The pair has never met and Jake assumes his cohort is a computer.

However, Jake's notion of his teammate changes when Cai comes out of the "shadows", enters a bar and uses telepathy to prove she knows him "intimately". She pleads with him to take her along on his next assignment, the capture of Banzai Maguire because Cai feels the legendary woman can provide her insight into what happened to her parents. Jake wants to refuse because he fears taking a "civilian" into a scenario, but reluctantly agrees. As they work together in person for the first time, both feel the fire between them, but the objective remains the capture of the legend Banzai before pursuing that attraction.

The fourth entry in the futuristic romantic science fiction thriller is a terrific entry as nano-technologies are introduced that seem genuine. They pump up the authenticity of the exciting story line. Cai is a fabulous protagonist and Jake is a strong soldier; this duo manages to take their cyber-distant partnership into a blood and guts teaming on two levels: personal and professional. The chase for the woman who started the miniseries Banzai adds a continuity so that fans obtain a winner that can stand alone or enhance the late twenty-first run.

Harriet Klausner

Cai and Jake are members of a unique fighting team. They are mentally linked via nanocomputers and can communicate via thought. But Jake thinks that Cai is a computer, so he is none too pleased when she reveals herself to be a live woman, and a young one at that. However Cai has a reason for revealing her identity, she wants to go to the Raft Cities to search for her parents, and the upcoming operation to retrieve Banzai Maguire and the son of the UCE's military commander in chief is going to the Raft Cities. Having the hero and heroine communicate by thought is a nifty concept, and the novel does use it to good effect, but the story is short on the pulse pounding action. It gets off to an excellent start, with an operation going wrong and Cai handling herself quite well in a back alley brawl, but then it mellows out and just kind of sits there for next few hundred pages. I probably wouldn't have minded, but the setting echoes the somewhat more action heavy The Shadow Runners a bit, and the need to trust is likewise echoed in Day of Fire. The book does contain a villain that you will love to hate and enjoy seeing taken down a notch, or three. It isn't a bad book, it just didn't grip my attention like The Legend of Banzai Maguire and The Shadow Runners did.