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A review by colossal
Going Dark by Linda Nagata
4.0
The Red is a good series. Unfortunately this book is only a mediocre entry in that series.
James Shelley is now totally committed to the Red. Working as part of an Existential Threat Management (ETM) team, he and his fellow LCS Red-influenced soldiers seek and destroy things that represent a threat to civilization or the Red itself. But he still cares about the life he's left behind, and those people still care about him.
Like the previous books, this one is very episodic, split up into code-named missions that are action-packed and slowly further the narrative. The problem here is that the narrative is already about as "furthered" as it's going to be at the start of the story. We already know that the Red is alien in its thought processes. We also know that it doesn't hesitate to sacrifice its "pieces" or exert direct influence over them. And Shelley has long suspected that the Red is not necessarily a cohesive whole.
So there's not much to be revealed here, other than perhaps Shelley's final fate. Which, like many soldiers after a long career, feels a bit anti-climactic.
James Shelley is now totally committed to the Red. Working as part of an Existential Threat Management (ETM) team, he and his fellow LCS Red-influenced soldiers seek and destroy things that represent a threat to civilization or the Red itself. But he still cares about the life he's left behind, and those people still care about him.
Like the previous books, this one is very episodic, split up into code-named missions that are action-packed and slowly further the narrative. The problem here is that the narrative is already about as "furthered" as it's going to be at the start of the story. We already know that the Red is alien in its thought processes. We also know that it doesn't hesitate to sacrifice its "pieces" or exert direct influence over them. And Shelley has long suspected that the Red is not necessarily a cohesive whole.
So there's not much to be revealed here, other than perhaps Shelley's final fate. Which, like many soldiers after a long career, feels a bit anti-climactic.