Breakaway

The Age-Old Question of Artificial Life

Tomas L. Martin reviews Joel Shepherd’s Breakaway: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel for SF Crowsnest.

Tomas nails what I love about these books when he says, “It is this extremely nuanced political spectrum that truly brings Breakaway to life. That and the explosions. The superb set pieces featuring SWAT teams against extremists are matched in excitement by the battles on the floors of government. The debates between Callay’s representatives are as exciting as the running gun battles in its streets.”

My initial reaction was to smile when Tomas talks about “the age-old question of how an artificial human would feel,” since I think of age-old as referring to something with a timeless, centuries-old history to it and A.I. isn’t that old of a concept, but then, SF has been dealing with this question for over a century now, and I suspect we can find corollaries in ancient myths as well, and certainly a certain work by Mary Shelley applies to… so I guess it is a age-old question after all. Fortunately, the consensus is that Joel Shepherd puts a new spin on it. And an exciting one at that.

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Breaking Out the Bright

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Although I’m still waiting on my own copies (suspense = killing me), I see that Amazon is now listing both Joel Shepherd’s Breakaway and Kay Kenyon’s Bright of the Sky as available to order, which means that you can now, you know, order them. But also that they are about a week away or so (if not sooner), from showing up in stores everywhere. (Regarding Bright of the Sky, signed copies are available from A Book for All Seasons.)

Meanwhile, if I may be forgiven for the reminder/plug, Publishers Weekly said of Breakaway, “Beneath the glitz of snazzy weaponry, unstoppable heroes and byzantine political machinations is a very real struggle about the nature of humanity and trust.” While, in their starred review of Bright of the Sky, they said, “Kenyon’s deft prose, high-stakes suspense and skilled, thorough world building will have readers anxious for the next installment.”

I’m really, really anxious to see this one in the flesh (see above aside about suspense), as we used a silver treatment on the title we’ve not used before, eye-catching and appropriate to a mysterious river that factors in Kay’s story.

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Publishers Weekly Makes the Break

Publishers Weekly has just weighed in on Breakaway, Joel Shepherd’s follow up to Crossover, which introduced us to the synthetic soldier Cassandra Kresnov. After summarizing everything I love about the plot, PW says:

“Beneath the glitz of snazzy weaponry, unstoppable heroes and byzantine political machinations is a very real struggle about the nature of humanity and trust.”

I might add that this review underscores why I think Joel Shepherd’s Cassandra Kresnov series are perfect Pyr books – “snazzy weaponry” and “unstoppable heroes” but also “political machinations” and “very real struggle” and “nature of humanity.”

Who’s to say that books about hot artificial soldiers leaping guns blazing out of flying cars can’t have depth and substance and character? See, as I’ve been saying all along, you can have your cake and blow it up too.

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For Your Viewing Pleasure: Breakaway

For your viewing pleasure, the front cover of Joel Shepherd’s Breakaway, the second book in the Cassandra Kresnov series. The first book in the series, Crossover, was released this past August. It was described by Publishers Weekly thusly: “Set in the far future, Australian author Shepherd’s energetic debut introduces Cassandra Kresnov, an experimental killer android-with-a-heart….Shepherd’s intriguing heroine and strong female characters bode well for this projected series. Lacing Cassandra’s search for identity and acceptance with plenty of hand-to-hand combat and racy sexual exploits, Shepherd also convincingly presents vividly realized ethical dilemmas….Shepherd grapples with some genuinely thought-provoking questions on the nature of humanity.”

Artwork is by the incomparable Stephan Martiniere, whose cover for the previous Cassandra Kresnov book, Crossover, was shown at the Hugo Ceremony when his nomination for Best Artist was read out. Design is once again by Prometheus’ Jacqueline Cooke. Breakaway appears from Pyr in April, 2007.

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