I met Mr. Shepherd at Dragon*Con after one of his writing panels, and his description of his Cassandra Kresnov series intrigued me. I'm a sucker for good, action-y sci-fi (one of the series that I really got me into sci-fi was Douglas Hill's Young Legionary books) and the cover had a very Mass Effect vibe to it (go play Mass Effect right now, if you haven't yet done so). Picking this book up seemed like a no-brainer.I was expecting an action-packed thriller, and while there is a good bit of action (and fun action, at that!) this is a much more cerebral book than I expected. Though there's plenty of shooting, fights, and chases, this is really a story about Cassandra Kresnov (Sandy) and her struggle to find her place in a world where there *is* no place for her. She's a GI--a highly intelligent, morally conflicted combat android--who is basically a cross between Pris, Number Six, and the Terminator. All she really wants to do is leave behind the war that birthed her and live life as a civilian.When the book starts, the government that made Sandy wants her dead and is actively hunting her. Soon after, the opposing government (which she's been attempting to quietly join) discovers her, captures her, and then wants nothing to do with her. They are filled with a strong (and justified) fear of her kind, as Sandy, like all GIs, was created to kill them and their soldiers during the war. Her arrival on their planet is somewhat like having a reformed, genuinely remorseful Terminator show up at John Conner's house and ask for political asylum. They don't destroy her outright, but they're also very slow to accept her or even acknowledge her as an equal.While I was surprised by how much of the book was focused on the extremely delicate politics of Sandy's unique situation, it went in an interesting direction and it soon became clear that the action really could *not* take place without the politics that set it in motion. Without spoiling the many plot twists, Sandy's unique nature causes her as many problems as it solves, and there's a great deal of political posturing and backdoor deals involved in every aspect of her adventure.The political realities of Sandy's situation influence the action and movement of the story at every turn, including the twists, and I was impressed with the way Mr. Shepherd handled telling that story. I always understood what was happening in the background of the story, the political side of things, yet it never felt like the political parts overtook the character development or action. It worked to tell Sandy's story, which is a simple story, really--her search for a home and people who will accept her as she is. There just happens to be an awful lot of shooting on the way.On the critique side, I will say one of the first things that struck me about Joel's writing style is his sentence structure. There's an odd rhythm to the writing of the book that's hard to compare to anything else I've read--lots of different ideas and descriptions placed one after the other, with many sentences being only a few words or beginning in odd places. It eventually took on its own unique charm, but it was something that took me some time to wrap my head around.The only other critique I'd offer is that I sometimes had trouble keeping the characters straight. Sometimes a character was referred to by their first name on one page and their last name on the next, and sometimes by the same POV character. This did throw me a few times, and I will admit it took me out of the narrative every so often as I worked to remember who a minor character was.Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to fans of science fiction, particularly science fiction with interesting things to say about gender, politics, and the morality of artificial intelligence. The world building is also excellent without being intrusive--there's enough cool ideas hinted at in this book for many sequels, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
I've been a fan of cyberpunk for a while but too much of the genre has been subsumed into the techno-thriller genre. Dropping the philosophical aspects of the early genre in favor of action and little else, which is a shame.This is definitely not one of those books. It's spent as much, or more, time considering the implications of the heroine's status as an artificial human as it did on the rest of the plot. And it did, if not subtly, then with a degree of skill that made it so compelling that the scenes were as compelling as the action. That question is explored from the macrocosm of the two predominant cultures, locked in a Cold War over the matter, down to the personal relationships the main character has with the people around her. It's a very well done aspect of the book that's worked seamlessly into a compelling plot.The plot, and the action it drives, does have a lot in common with Ghost In the Shell, particularly the Stand Alone Complex continuity. It's not a carbon copy by any means but Cassandra and Motoko are cut from the same cloth. Which is not a bad thing by any means, the book is hardly derivative.I won't spoil the plot but suffice to say it's a good one. Cassandra is naturally dropped into the middle of a complex knot of political intrigue. Her personal struggle becomes one of the central elements in deciding how a nasty covert operation goes. There's a good dose of action and a good dose of political intrigue. Both elements are well handled and feed into the overall whole. It's hard to explain it all with out spoiling it but suffice to say it's well done, and ongoing in the sequels. I'm impressed with Crossover and am already starting on the sequels.
Do You like book Crossover (2006)?
This book is nearly 500 pages long and it contains about 150 pages of content. A really good author could cover this material in less than 30.There is a lot of weird sex that feels really out of place, waaaay too much droning about the politics of the two major factions involved, and endless repetition about how amazingly gifted the protagonist is. Despite the promise of the cover, there's precious little action in this book and what there is just isn't well done.It feels like the author created his perfect fetish robot and then stuck her in the middle of UN subcommittee meeting and then remembered every once in a while she should have sex with everyone and then go into battle with others. I suppose someone versed in Australian politics would be able to parse who the various characters are supposed to be, but all I got from it was a lot of talking heads doing inexplicable things.It was more boring than anything else, with the occasional eye roll at the cringeworthy sex scenes. I just didn't buy any of it, frankly, from the world building to the main character.
—Trike
Too much talk & politics, but (killer?) android intrigue rises above the dull parts. Recommended.GOOD: The main character, Cassandra, is a female android of sorts. She is quite interesting. Of course she's hot, deadly, full of surprises-- and gets into all sorts of trouble! She is a unique slant on the old "killer android" theme. Some future SWAT team action and one disturbing but effective scene.NOT-SO-GOOD: The physical world setting (a future Earth colony planet) is barely sketched; mostly we get building descriptions and vague vehicle info. About half the book is consumed with characters discussing politics. No space battles or space travel, other than in brief memory flashbacks.RATING: 3.2 starsVery good first novel by a new author. Interesting main character. Way too much exposition. Left me wanting to know more about the planet and Cassandra. It was good enough that I read Book #2, but not sure if I'd go further in the series.
—StarMan
Joel Shepherd has written a cool book in CROSSOVER, both a kick-ass android political action tale and a deconstruction of humanity, with both aspects are equally rewarding.On the one hand, we have the main character, Cassandra Kresnov: She is a badass android — skin and muscles stronger than steel, superspeed and reflexes…the works. Unfortunately, she is too smart for her own good (as an aside, here’s a reminder to future android/artificial intelligence scientists: There’s such a thing as “too smart,” and if you have to ask yourself, “Is my robot killing machine too smart?” then it probably is) and escapes the horrors of war for a quiet normal life. Well, that only lasts for a couple of pages, really, and then we get to see her in full-on ass-kicking action. But in the aftermath of the aforementioned ass-whooping, a strange thing happens: She starts talking to people, and the conversations are interesting.Hold the phone, what? More: http://www.bookgasm.com/reviews/sci-f...
—Ryun
