Kill Decision
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4.7 • 11 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A scientist and a soldier must join forces when combat drones zero in on targets on American soil in this gripping technological thriller from New York Times bestselling author Daniel Suarez.
Linda McKinney studies the social behavior of insects—which leaves her entirely unprepared for the day her research is conscripted to help run an unmanned and automated drone army.
Odin is the secretive Special Ops soldier with a unique insight into a faceless enemy who has begun to attack the American homeland with drones programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention.
Together, McKinney and Odin must slow this advance long enough for the world to recognize its destructive power. But as enigmatic forces press the advantage, and death rains down from above, it may already be too late to save mankind from destruction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Perfectly blending nail-biting suspense with accessible science, bestseller Suarez (Daemon) establishes himself as a legitimate heir to Michael Crichton with this gripping present-day thriller. The U.S. military is in an uproar after someone used an unmanned Predator drone to destroy a mosque in Iraq during prayers, killing and wounding thousands. Since the drone bore American markings, the Arab world discounts U.S. declarations of innocence. Advances in technology have allowed such weapons to make "a kill decision without direct human involvement." Meanwhile, professor Linda McKinney, an ant expert, has managed to tag each member of an ant colony to study the colony's swarm behavior, but her research in Africa abruptly ends after an attack on her lab. McKinney is rescued by a shadowy figure whose true motives and loyalties are obscure, but who seeks to make use of her findings. Suarez manages to keep the reader genuinely in doubt about which characters will survive, and couples deft plotting with evocative language (e.g., Kinshasa and Brazzaville are "essentially Africa's liver circulating the population of the riverine interior through a pitiless Darwinian filter").
Customer Reviews
Intelligent thriller
Just could not put this book down.
Extremely timely
As we continue into the second decade of the "war on terror" this book is a very timely look at what our near future could be like in terms of the changing nature of combat. This is the story that has been missing to explain the rise of the machine from slave to master that is the premise of the Terminator and Galactica franchises. Like Daemon and Freedom Saurez links the US corporate addiction to defence contracting and the fear of the unseen enemy within and without to weave a very plausible and scary scenario. Like his previous books the technical detail is fantastic and well researched. The premise that satellite bandwidth could be the driving force behind taking the kill decision away from human operators is fascinating and sets up an ethical vs practical dilemma for those looking for a viable defence against nationless combatants. I can't wait for his next book.