Killswitch

Cassandra Kresnov #3

by Joel Shepherd

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 installment 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 Defense Force (CDF) – a newly formed group of raw recruits led by a politically hamstrung general. However, the CDF is largely trained and organized 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.

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Military Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, Thriller

452 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Joel Shepherd is an Australian science fiction author. He moved to Perth, Western Australia with his family when he was seven, where he later studied film and television arts at Curtin University. He now lives in Adelaide.

Reviews

[Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killswitch, the final book in Joel Shepherd’s CASSANDRA KRESNOV trilogy, picks up the story 2 years after the end of Breakaway. The Federation is still going through a period of upheaval, with Callayan President Neiland trying to make Tanusha the capital of the formerly Earth-based organization, and numerous powerful factions (including Federation Fleet warships) converging on the planet to try and affect the outcome of this political power play.

Meanwhile, Callay is still in the process of setting up the administrative and military infrastructure necessary for its new function, and of course the former League hunter-killer android Cassandra Kresnov, and her friend Vanessa Rice, are heavily involved, both somehow installed at the top of the new Callayan Defence Force. (And if this seems a stretch in terms of probability, Joel Shepherd seems to agree, having Sandy wonder out loud “How the hell did us two idiots end up running an army?” early in the novel.)

To make matters even more complicated, Sandy’s lover Ari Ruben discovers that her creators incorporated a “killswitch” in her brainstem, and that someone may be trying to activate it. In the middle of maybe the most important period in the history of Callay, Sandy is forced to go underground and investigate the plot to kill her.

Killswitch is again filled with interesting characters — most importantly of course Cassandra Kresnov, the android action hero with a heart, and her friend and colleague Vanessa Rice. Also reappearing in a more prominent role are Ari Ruben (who is interesting enough to carry a novel by himself), and Rhian Chu, an artificial person who used to be a member of Sandy’s former Dark Star squad and who effectively illustrates the personality development curve the high-des androids can go through. The descriptions of Sandy’s (and Rhian’s) thought processes, coming to terms with what they have done in the line of duty, are at times surprisingly powerful.

Killswitch is another fine installment in the CASSANDRA KRESNOV series, this time even more action-packed and exciting than the previous two books — as hard as that may be to believe! There’s not a dull moment in this novel, and especially the action scenes involving both Sandy and Rhian are tremendously gripping and simply impossible to put down.

If the novel has one weakness, it’s that Joel Shepherd is running two parallel story lines, a major one involving Sandy and Vanessa’s activities planetside, and a smaller (but equally important) one focusing on rivaling Fleet factions in orbit. The plots are connected because both influence the eventual outcome of the Callayan bid to become the Federation capital, but they are generally kept separate for most of the novel until they are resolved in quick succession at the end of the novel. This has the odd consequence of giving the novel two endings, with the second (and again, equally important) one feeling somewhat like an afterthought, after reading the explosive finale of the planetside plot.

With some reconfiguring, this novel could probably have been turned into two books, although maybe that’s just a reflection of my genuine disappointment that Killswitch is the last novel in the CASSANDRA KRESNOV series. Despite the rushed ending, this is a strong, intelligent and breathless military-flavored SF novel. If Joel Shepherd were to write another 10 novels in this series, I’d happily read them all.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent conclusion to a great trilogy. Cassandra Kresnov remains a great character and this final installment suffers from far less pacing problems than the first book. Joel Shepherd has grown as much as a writer as his main character has as a person over the course of this series.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great end to the series. Cassandra get all that she wished for, just not in the way she wanted. Again start with the first book, don't start in the middle or the end.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series gets better and better as it goes on! This takes place about two years after the last, as the Federation struggles to establish a new capitol off of old Earth, but there are a lot of factions on old Earth that are not happy about the new reality. Once again, excellent action scenes, but most of all, excellent characters that really come alive. The existentialist question of what it means to be human once again appears and is thoughtfully discussed in detail.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 4 out of 5]

In another trilogy that features a female protagonist, the third installment of Joel Shepherd’s Cassandra Kresnov series, “Killswitch” (Pyr, $9.98, 450 pages), finally made it into my American hands, long after I read the first two in their Australian versions (Shepherd lives in Adelaide). Surprisingly, I was immediately back up to speed in this novel about an advanced combat android known as a “GI”, Sandy Kresnov, who abandoned her creators to live in a free society where she could become more aware of her human side.

But Kresnov’s dreams of a more pleasant, less violent, life on pacifist and somewhat decadent Callay run into the harsh reality of intergalactic politics and her own skills. She is a commander in the newly formed Callayan Defense Force, and must fight off attacks from various offworld factions – including some with GIs of their own.

Shepherd manages the complex narrative well, continues to develop Kresnov’s character and does just fine with the long combat setpieces. The conclusion isn’t quite as believable as it might be, as Shepherd made sure to leave the door open for a possible sequel (or two), but all in all “Killswitch” is a very good third in a series, and all three (“Crossover” and “Breakaway”) are highly recommended.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have enjoyed the first two books in this series, but I have been waiting for the story to really take off. Unfortunately after reading the first half of this book I was beginning to think this was a backward step.

This story is just too chaotic, everybody is the enemy, too many actions are just haphazard. It’s as if the author couldn’t work out where to take the story so just threw in new characters and plots at random, like a ‘beat em up’ computer game. Perhaps his target audience is the ‘Call of Duty’ generation!

It may be that the author is trying to show how confused the situation actually is, but it makes it irritating to read and to be honest, it was just becoming boring. Fortunately things improved a little in the second half, with less chaos and enough logic to make it possible to follow the story and to actually begin to care about the characters again, although it was still more computer game than sifi thriller.

[Ryun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things finally are coming to a head for sexy one-woman army Cassandra Kresnov: a de facto occupying fleet is surrounding her newly adopted homeworld of Callay, there’s a superhuman killer loose that seems strangely familiar, and her boyfriend’s just told her that there’s a self-destruct mechanism inside her skull.

KILLSWITCH – the third book in Joel Shepherd’s series that started in Australia in 2001 and was brought to North America last year by Pyr with CROSSOVER and BREAKAWAY – is another remarkable effort that remains true to its predecessors and shows Shepherd’s evolution as a writer.

More: http://www.bookgasm.com/reviews/sci-f...

[Alisa Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book of the Cassandra Kresnov series, and I will have to say I enjoyed it as much as the other two. Hard-hitting action, military sci-fi, philosophical questions about the meaning of life-it was all in there and made me think as well as being an enjoyable read. For someone who is not supposed to be human, Cassandra Kresnov sure has a good handle on what it means to be human. I have also read and enjoyed the first two books of this series and would love for the author to revisit it at some point. In any case, I plan to read more from this author as he has a good style I can relate to. Nice job!!!

[Shara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this has been a pretty enjoyable trilogy. It's ambitious and intellectual, action-packed but yet intimate. Shepherd's greatest strength are characters you can really emphasize with and the amazing level of his diverse, culturally relevant world-building. Also enjoyable is the fact he really does have some strong, heroic women leads, and multiple leads at that, which is really awesome. [return][return][return]For a full review, which does include some spoilers, please click here: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.co...

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a combat android, it seems someone always wants to assassinate you, which can seriously interfere with your love life and surfing opportunities. For starters, someone has planted a virus in Sandy’s brain, and it is not just her they hope to kill. Killswitch, the third novel in Joel Shepherd’s Cassandra Kresnov series, has effective action scenes and a likable lead character, but its plot is forgettable. 3.5 stars.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, there is some really great writing in this series - some great writing for key characters, but the author can get a little bogged down in minutia sometimes. As a result the book can feel like it's dragging a bit re. each main story.

[Shen · Rating 2 out of 5]

didn't really enjoy this one at all. it felt like it was written because he had to write it not like there was another story there to come out.

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Shara's(Calico Reaction)review. The books should be read in order.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, Commander Kresnov kicks butt and takes names. REALLY like this character.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good - made a nice round out of the trilogy. Continue to find the technological word and Cassandra's place in in interesting

[Heather Mayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this series for the same reason I really enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[David Brawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3rd book in the series. Just a fun as the others!

[Rich Willson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Badass Grrl!!

[Jon]

A while back, at the Friends of the Library bookstore, I picked up the first two Cassandra Kresnov novels, Breakaway and Crossover. Found them to be pretty amusing, but the third book never turned up for sale, and I just recently found it available at the lending library. It's a shame I haven't the time to go back and give a thorough "what has gone before" with those two books, but you'll just have to trust that the action in those books leads implicitly to the situation at the beginning of Killswitch. Cassandra is a GI, a synthetic person, designed to be a super soldier, killer, or spy, far stronger faster and durable than a normal human being. She's also an experimental model, given far greater intelligence than earlier models, and after fighting for a shadowy group called Dark Star for a number of years, she learned to think for herself, and desire a life for herself other than constant fighting. So, in the earlier novels, she went AWOL, and fled to the world of Tanusha, far away from the conflict between the League, which created her, and the Federation of Earth. At the beginning of this story, she is the second in command of the defense forces of Tanusha, a security advisor to its President Nieland, and has established good friendships and strong bonds with her coworkers...and co-conspirators. She even has a boyfriend, Ari, who works for Tanushan Intelligence, and who comes in handy even outside the bedroom, when she needs contacts in the shadows or information that's tricky to worm out. Cassandra gets word that the League designed her with a killswitch - a way to deactivate her on command, through her neural network, which she uses to directly access the various information networks on Tanusha, like wetware wireless access. To make it even tougher, there's a new GI in town, with the same advanced abilities as Cassandra, but with her loyalties firmly locked down, and that android has the killswitch, as well as a hidden agenda which Cassandra's friends and allies probably aren't going to like. At the same time, most inconveniently, a portion of Earth's Fifth Fleet is blockading the space stations' ports, through which all of Tanusha's commerce flows, and tensions are ratcheting up between the space marines and the transport union goons. Tanusha has been selected as the next seat of the high council, (sort of like a space U.N.), and Cassandra suspects that neither the Federation nor the League are happy with the coming change, and will probably do whatever they can to sabotage the process. Her mission, should she choose to accept it, is to find the killer android, neutralize the killswitch, figure out who has infiltrated the Tanushan government, and stop a space war. No problem. This was a pretty good series, with lots of action, much breakage and exploding.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with the previous ones in this series, I enjoyed reading the book. I like Cassandra/Sandy both for her humanity (well, she's not exactly human) and for being the killing machine that she is (but with a conscience). This book takes place two years after the previous one. In that time, Callay, the planet Sandy lives and works for, has positioned itself to become the center of the Federation of human civilization. The Fleet, based on Earth, still doesn't want to give up Earth's claim to being that Center, and are set up to blockade Callay. But not all of the Fleet are in agreement with that. The League, who made the GIs, is also a player, and their intentions are not good either.

Sandy now has her fellow GI (artificial-intelligence constructed person), Rhian, as a friend and co-worker, and is in cautious touch with another with her own capabilities, who she met in the previous book. In this one, she meets still another much younger one, Jane, who is as smart as her but has been designed and brought up without a conscience. She also finds that she's been programmed with a killswitch, which enables people with the proper code to kill her instantly and remotely.

As with the other books, I had to ignore a number of things that didn't quite make sense or weren't resolved. (For example, the killswitch problem kind of fizzles out at one point with only a couple sentences of explanation.) These could be fixed, but they don't detract from the readability of the books. Also, I gave up on following a couple of complicated battle scenarios, but that is probably me not caring for military stuff. All in all, an excellent read.

[Bory · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, if somewhat flawed, finale to the original Cassandra Kresnov trilogy.

Overall, I liked this book. The action remains engaging and well-written, with enough technological overlay for the science fiction nature of the story. The world is interesting, if somewhat narrowly focused. The characters, for the most part, are likable and relatable. Rhian and Vanessa are my favorites, I'd say, with Cassandra not far behind.

Now, Ari continues to be a low point for me, and I'm greatly frustrated that my suspicious that he was being set up a romantic interest for Cassandra turned out to be true. Those two have all the chemistry between them of inner gasses, and only served the author's incessant need to repeatedly and forcefully remind the reader how heterosexual Cassandra is.

The plot is fine. I like the central conflict, but wished more time was spent on the space station, dealing with the conflict and tension between the Third and Fifth Fleets. Maybe even some time on Earth?

The ending, like with the previous book, felt very abrupt. Yes, we got a resolution to most of the plot lines, but what about the Federation center of governance relocating to Callay? Or Vanessa's feelings for Cassandra? Or what the hell happened to the Third Fleet and Captain Reichardt? Did they just go? A lot of loose treads left dangling, is what I'm saying.

Yes, I know there are more books in the series. But this was, when it was written, intended to be the final book in a trilogy. It is, also, my jumping off point, at least for now.

[Mark Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots more action in this one. Sandy and Vanessa are the operational leaders of the new Callayan Defense Force. Arrayed against them are the Fifth Fleet, threatening a blockade to stop Callay from becoming the new capital of the Federation and thus ending the domination of Earth. On the ground, there's a new high-des GI, a dark, soulless version of Sandy, bent on destabilization through assassination. And the League scientist who designed all the GIs is in Tanusha with his own agenda.

Shepherd still injects more touchy-feely stuff than I'm comfortable with (For instance, there's a rift between Vanessa and Sandy that is silly and reflects badly on Vanessa—that it pretty much just vanishes midway through the book indicates that it should've been excised during editing). But Shepherd has seeded these emotional distractions amongst some great and extended action.

There are still some editing issues. What most aggravates me is the tendency to put speech from one person in the same paragraph as another person's reaction to it. This mistake undercuts the whole writing convention of action beats. Very confusing, as I was kicked out of the story to try to figure out who was speaking to whom. A simple correction of paragraph structure would eliminate the confusion.

All that said, I was invested in this more than in earlier entries. It was genuinely exciting as well as containing some thoughtful arguments on the nature of programmable artificial beings and freedom.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the previous 2 books. I had some trouble following the plot in some places. For an book which has POV chapters from Sandy, Vanessa, the president, Ari, various generals on both sides of the conflict, there was a surprising amount of action that happened "offscreen", meaning that things would happen out of nowhere and would get explained in retrospect. I'm sure the author had a reason for this but it just made me feel like I was missing large chunks of the book.

Action scenes we're good as always. Plotwise, meh. Half the book felt like filler. The whole killswitch thing I felt was pretty inconsequential. It popped up like twice in the book and nothing happened.
And sometimes when either Sandy or Vanessa started philosophizing, I got pretty bored.

This wasn't exclusive to the 3rd book but if I have to read about Sandy commenting that she is/was/will be just a grunt one more time, I'm gonna lose it..... She has literally never ever been a grunt, being created to be a high des GI, literally created to be the opposite of a grunt, all that lateral thinking and independence, commander of dark star and now commander of the CDF. Kinda like a Hollywood celebrity identifying with the middle class peons, nice gesture but lets not kid ourselves.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der dritte Band um die Androidin Cassandra Kresnov ist ein sehr gelungener Abschluss der Trilogie. Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Trilogien, schafft es Joel Shepherd nicht ständig auf dem selben Plot herumzukauen, bis nur noch ein sämiger Brei vorhanden ist, mit dem man sich wirklich nicht mehr beschäftigen möchte. In jedem Teil erweitert er den Plot um zusätzliche interessante Komponenten, wirft Fragen auf, die die Konflikte aus anderen Perspektiven beleuchten und der Geschichte weitere Dimensionen liefern. So wurde im Laufe der Geschichte der Konflikt, bei dem es anfangs "lediglich" um die Existenz der Androidin und der damit verbundenen Intentionen ging, ein historisches Brimborium, dass starke politische aber auch gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen nach sich zog. Involviert ist letztendlich der gesamte bevölkerte Raum im Universum und man bekommt noch interessante potentielle Zukunftsszenarien im Bereich Technick / KI, Gesellschaft und Politik präsentiert. Mir hat die Reihe wirklich gut gefallen, man bekommt Denkimpulse, sympathische und differenzierte Charaktere, gute und interessante Dialoge und viel Action.

[elidemelnibone · Rating 4 out of 5]

j'aime bien ce futur où des androïdes deviennent des personnes. L'histoire est toujours aussi passionnante, pleine d'action et de problématiques politiques et éthiques, et d'amitié. J'apprécie que l'auteur prenne aussi le temps pour des détails et des descriptions. L'action se passe dans le système solaire de Callay (la planète principale), même s'il y a une fédération, une ligue, et une espèce intelligente dont les humains se tiendraient à l'écart par peur et prudence ; c'est juste mentionné, mais ça éveille ma curiosité surtout qu'il est dit lors d'une conversation que la technologie [des androïdes] serait tellement avancée qu'elle ne serait pas "humaine" mais d'origine "Talee ?" .... Ce devait être une trilogie, mais l'auteur a fait une suite, que j'ai la chance d'avoir sous la main .... je peux continuer à passer des heures de la nuit avec Cassandra "Sandy" Kresnov, son amie Vanessa "Ricey" Rice, et les autres ... loin, très loin de la Terre, qui n'a d'ailleurs pas un très bon rôle dans l'histoire.

[HeyT · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am still enjoying my time in this world immensely. There's nothing shocking or groundbreaking with this series but it's a good quick read that I enjoyed. This installment takes place two years after the event in the previous one with new job roles and a slightly different political landscape has evolved. I feel like Cassandra has continued to grow as a person as she adjusts to a more civilianish lifestyle. Cassandra still is learning how to deal with straight society and the relationships she has with her building cadre of allies. I definitely will continue on in the series.

[Leslie Baptiste · Rating 4 out of 5]

good round up for the first trilogy, very good series.

If you like the first two books then you would like this one. More of Sandy kicking butt, slice of life but with new characters entertain throughout the storyline. And there’s a new addition an interesting character name of Jane. What happens with her oh well no spoilers. Read the book series is good. You will enjoy it. Like I said in my previous reviews if you can get past the Indian centric characters of the series it is a good book and series.

[Craig Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the story continues it loses some pace as it falls into the common difficulty of ever extending series. As our protagonist progresses, much of the tension evaporates in the greater acceptance she finds; and the substituted titular “kill switch” fails to compensate. Indeed, it is so non-threatening the book almost entirely forgets about it, to the point that it is completely absent from the finale.

This is entertaining enough, but flawed.

[Gunnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Not sure if my rating is because I am getting tired of the formula or if this book wasn't as strong as the previous two. Still 3.5 stars, but I chose the three visual stars instead of four because of that.

The ending was a disappointment. I know what you're thinking... Not killing the Dickhead near the end shows Cassandra's growth as a person.

[Csw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still love the characters and Cassandra's evolution, but the plot and the way it played out was somewhat repetitive for me. Maybe I waited too long between the books to pick up the investment in the political threads and had forgotten some elements.