370 pages
English language
Published Feb. 12, 2014 by Ace Books.
"The Great Reawakening did not come quietly. Across the country and in every nation, people began 'coming up Latent, ' developing terrifying powers--summoning storms, raising the dead, and setting everything they touch ablaze. Those who Manifest must choose: become a sheepdog who protects the flock or a wolf who devours it. In the wake of a bloody battle at Forward Operating Base Frontier and a scandalous presidential impeachment, Lieutenant Colonel Jan Thorsson, call sign 'Harlequin, ' becomes a national hero and a pariah to the military that is the only family he's ever known. In the fight for Latent equality, Oscar Britton is positioned to lead a rebellion in exile, but a powerful rival beats him to the punch: Scylla, a walking weapon who will stop at nothing to end the human-sanctioned apartheid against her kind. When Scylla's inhuman forces invade New York City, the Supernatural Operations Corps are the …
"The Great Reawakening did not come quietly. Across the country and in every nation, people began 'coming up Latent, ' developing terrifying powers--summoning storms, raising the dead, and setting everything they touch ablaze. Those who Manifest must choose: become a sheepdog who protects the flock or a wolf who devours it. In the wake of a bloody battle at Forward Operating Base Frontier and a scandalous presidential impeachment, Lieutenant Colonel Jan Thorsson, call sign 'Harlequin, ' becomes a national hero and a pariah to the military that is the only family he's ever known. In the fight for Latent equality, Oscar Britton is positioned to lead a rebellion in exile, but a powerful rival beats him to the punch: Scylla, a walking weapon who will stop at nothing to end the human-sanctioned apartheid against her kind. When Scylla's inhuman forces invade New York City, the Supernatural Operations Corps are the only soldiers equipped to prevent a massacre. In order to redeem himself with the military, Harlequin will be forced to face off with this havoc-wreaking woman from his past, warped by her power into something evil."--Publisher's description.
A vigourous tale, didn't go where I thought it would go. Keen to read sequel but I seem to have book 3 in my shelf. A sequencing fail on my part.
This is one of those books where the hype lead me to expect something amazing and I came away a little disappointed. It's a clever idea, mixing the military and magic in such a unique way, but all the way through Britton just irritated me. He seemed to vacillate between good and bad, right and wrong, service and rebellion at every possible point and in a protagonist I find that sort of indecisiveness a touch too incredulous.
The combat was very well written indeed; Chris Evans is right when he says “Myke Cole takes you downrange where the bullets fly and the magic burns with precision-guided ferocity that’ll put you on the edge of your seat before blowing you right out of it.”
For all the good writing and very nicely done action though, character let this down for me. Maybe the next novel in the series, now our characters …
This is one of those books where the hype lead me to expect something amazing and I came away a little disappointed. It's a clever idea, mixing the military and magic in such a unique way, but all the way through Britton just irritated me. He seemed to vacillate between good and bad, right and wrong, service and rebellion at every possible point and in a protagonist I find that sort of indecisiveness a touch too incredulous.
The combat was very well written indeed; Chris Evans is right when he says “Myke Cole takes you downrange where the bullets fly and the magic burns with precision-guided ferocity that’ll put you on the edge of your seat before blowing you right out of it.”
For all the good writing and very nicely done action though, character let this down for me. Maybe the next novel in the series, now our characters are a bit more established, will pick up some.
