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Control: Bleak Pass
Military science fiction, first of a trilogy.
783 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 9, 2014
This story is for those who love military SF and can't wait to see what happens when orange-flashed black armour meets high velocity weapons fire, as AIs and people battle it out for supremacy.
The tale begins at a strategic computer centre where we learn that even AIs can't keep everything secure. Then we shift to a dull mining planet in mid-war years. I was not keen on the device of getting us familiar with a character who is then abruptly killed, as it makes the reader reluctant to get invested in the next characters presented. The people we meet are by and large at war, either spying on others, giving chilling orders about weapons strikes or in the thick of battle; there is also a lot of strong language. So they do not come across as sympathetic characters.
The writing is good quality and the author has clearly spent a lot of time and effort on his world building; we see that these people originated with ourselves, from an AI deciding to don the image of Clark Gable. However unless you have served in an army you may not find much that is easily relatable. I liked a scene where a farming zone is set up for a sneak attack squad, but the invaders don't bargain for the giant floodlights which allow farmers to harvest around the clock. We meet more ordinary people here, mechanics and farmers' daughters, who are not depersonalised by the armour and high velocity weapons.
I also admired the physics knowledge easily presented, from the gravitational pull of a gas giant planet on someone without power, to the foreseeable effect of a grenade exploding in a tunnel carved from bedrock.
I am sure that those SF readers who devour military space opera books will enjoy CONTROL more than I did, but any reader can take away the message that wars generate humanitarian nightmares and our near-future decisions may determine our far-future survival. This is the first of a trilogy by Niall Singers, and it ends at a point of stress.
The tale begins at a strategic computer centre where we learn that even AIs can't keep everything secure. Then we shift to a dull mining planet in mid-war years. I was not keen on the device of getting us familiar with a character who is then abruptly killed, as it makes the reader reluctant to get invested in the next characters presented. The people we meet are by and large at war, either spying on others, giving chilling orders about weapons strikes or in the thick of battle; there is also a lot of strong language. So they do not come across as sympathetic characters.
The writing is good quality and the author has clearly spent a lot of time and effort on his world building; we see that these people originated with ourselves, from an AI deciding to don the image of Clark Gable. However unless you have served in an army you may not find much that is easily relatable. I liked a scene where a farming zone is set up for a sneak attack squad, but the invaders don't bargain for the giant floodlights which allow farmers to harvest around the clock. We meet more ordinary people here, mechanics and farmers' daughters, who are not depersonalised by the armour and high velocity weapons.
I also admired the physics knowledge easily presented, from the gravitational pull of a gas giant planet on someone without power, to the foreseeable effect of a grenade exploding in a tunnel carved from bedrock.
I am sure that those SF readers who devour military space opera books will enjoy CONTROL more than I did, but any reader can take away the message that wars generate humanitarian nightmares and our near-future decisions may determine our far-future survival. This is the first of a trilogy by Niall Singers, and it ends at a point of stress.
Displaying 1 of 1 review