Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel (Paperback)

by Joel Shepherd (Author)

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

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Product Details

• Paperback: 451 pages
• Publisher: Pyr (November 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591025982
• ISBN-13: 978-1591025986
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #215,321 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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 (REAL NAME)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No rest for the killing-machine with a heart..., April 9, 2008

By	A. Lee (L.A., CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

2 of 2 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 (REAL NAME)

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.