Hardcover, 390 pages
English language
Published July 19, 2012 by E P Dutton & Co.
When the U.S. finds itself subjected to targeted drone assassinations, the race is on to find those responsible. But after the drones are discovered to be autonomous — programmed to strike without direct human control — the search for the perpetrators becomes infinitely more difficult. It's a discovery that heralds in a new era of cheap, anonymous war, where the kill decision has moved from man to machine with lasting consequences for us all.
This was a fantastic thriller. The technology totally checks out, and Suarez draws a very scary picture of a not-too-distant future.
Unmanned weaponised drones already exist—they are widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East. But what would happen if these drones became so advanced that they are programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention? Daniel Suarez is back to take a look at the real science and then take it one step further to show the frightening results.
Daniel Suarez is really becoming the go-to-guy for techno-thrillers that look at current technology and then show the possibility of what they can do. In his first series Deamon, Suarez looks at the possibility of a computer program running without human control and what it could do to make a new world order. In Kill Decision he takes a look at the unmanned drones and then builds on the existing technology to make a thrilling and frightening tale of the future of war.
This is …
Unmanned weaponised drones already exist—they are widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East. But what would happen if these drones became so advanced that they are programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention? Daniel Suarez is back to take a look at the real science and then take it one step further to show the frightening results.
Daniel Suarez is really becoming the go-to-guy for techno-thrillers that look at current technology and then show the possibility of what they can do. In his first series Deamon, Suarez looks at the possibility of a computer program running without human control and what it could do to make a new world order. In Kill Decision he takes a look at the unmanned drones and then builds on the existing technology to make a thrilling and frightening tale of the future of war.
This is a fast paced techno-thriller so don’t expect huge character development but Suarez did do a decent enough job at adding some depth to his characters. Sure I would have loved more to them but they never felt unreal or one dimensional. As far as the technology advances that he explore in this novel, that feels very real, like the natural progression of war and that is what is frightening.
This book is nothing special, it takes the standard thriller architecture and Daniel Suarez just builds from there. I wanted to read this book because I loved Deamon but even though the sequel Freedom TM did get a little far-fetched the series was really enjoyable and geeky. With Kill Decision I kind of felt like it was too similar but rewritten to make it feel like a war techno thriller instead. While it was fun to read, I never felt satisfied by the end result. I’m a nerd and I was hoping for more of the computer side of things not the war elements that I got.
This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/03/26/book-review-kill-decision/
