Tech Strike Force

C.A.D.S. #4

by John Sievert

Crippled by Russia's nuclear first strike, America's sole defense against the onslaught of the Soviet invasion force is the C.A.D.S., an elite force of U.S. soldiers equipped with Computerized Attack/Defense System suits

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1987

About the author

A pseudonym of Ryder Syvertsen

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fourth book of a twelve-volume post-apocalyptic men's adventure series published from 1985 - '91 by Zebra. All of the books were published under the pseudonym John Sievert. The first one was written by Jan Stacy in collaboration with Ryder Syvertsen. Numbers two through eight were written by Syvertsen alone, and the final four were written by David Alexander. It's set in the near future (1997), the Russians have hit the Eastern half of the U.S. with nuclear bombs, and their invasion force is sweeping across the country. The last line of defense is Colonel Dean Sturgis and his cadre of C.A.D.S., which stands for Computerized Attack/Defense System, as we're told quite frequently. The C.A.D.S. are suits of weaponized armor that turn the wearers into super soldiers, but their numbers are low. Society disintegrates rapidly, and the C.A.D.S. troopers have to fight mad bands of rampaging rapists nearly as often as they oppose the godless commies. The book is unapologetically patriotic, as one might expect from the days of Reagan's second term, and has several over-the-top but amusing bits of black humor interspersed with some rather gritty violent scenes, though it was somewhat tamer than many of Zebra's other such series. In this one, the President and his high command have set up shop in White Sands, New Mexico, and Sturgis and his fellow C.A.D.S. have established a secret base deep in the Okefenokee Swamp in Florida to be closer to the Soviet invader forces. Sturgis, who is still determined to find his lost wife, Robin, gets a disturbing message from White Sands that there is a traitor in the American forces who has set up his own band of tech-enhanced commandos and his intention is to sell out the U.S. to the U.S.S.R. Their mission in this installment is to find and eliminate the traitors. The series was becoming more formulaic in this one, but it's still a good survivalist/military-type adventure of the time.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average apocalyptic adventure story. This one has the rebels using really cool computerized armor to fight with. Recommended