Control Point

Shadow Ops

By: Myke Cole

Narrated by: Corey Jackson

Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Myke Cole is an expert at ratcheting up suspense and delivering pulse-pounding adventure that leaves audiences breathless. In Shadow Ops: Control Point, the world has seemingly gone mad. People are waking up with magical powers, such as the ability to raise the dead or call forth storms. The only thing staving off a plunge into chaos is the Supernatural Operations Corps, headed by Oscar Britton. But when Oscar exhibits a power of his own, the hunter becomes the hunted.

©2012 Myke Cole (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Cross The For­ever War with Witch­world, add in the real world mod­ern mil­i­tary of Black Hawk Down, and you get Control Point, the mile-a-minute story of some­one try­ing to find pur­pose in a war he never asked for." (Jack Camp­bell, New York Times Bestselling author of "The Lost Fleet" series)

Blood and Death

Loved the story. ..loved the Characters. it became progressively. bloody. Can't wait to get to the next book

get on with it

What disappointed you about Control Point?

Got tired of the plot dragging and the characters contstant whining. It was a struggle just to get through it. If it wasn't on audio, I would have never finished it.

Would you ever listen to anything by Myke Cole again?

No

Have you listened to any of Corey Jackson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Good concept. Plenty of potential

Any additional comments?

Poorly executed by author

Just could not finish the book.

The main character just... complains too much. At some point I could not take it any more and stop listening.Maybe the other follow on books are good but I don't plan on finding out.

One of the worst books I've ever read/listened to

I submitted this book to my book club and it won the election. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! We all hated it. I'll give a short summary as to why, but I could go on for pages:

The narrator did a fine job; the author did a terrible job. The main character (Oscar) always takes the stupidest reactionary course of action. Throughout the book he gets tons of people killed by running around like a crazy person, ignoring orders, and using his powers with minimal creativity.

The powers that people can have are fairly interesting, but the execution was rather slap-dash. We see hydromancers using their powers to create torrents of water and freeze things/people solid, but when they go to fight Oscar they just dehydrate him - which is very uncomfortable! Elementalists at the beginning of the book can create powerful elementals from available fire, water, air, or earth, but after the first encounter the elementalist will wait for fire or water to appear on the battlefield before making one of those two kinds of elementals. Why not use earth or air? You know.. the elements that are always available?

Throughout the whole story I was thinking: "What is wrong with all these characters? Why are they all so stupid?"

I will say that the moral quandary of how a government would deal with a percentage of the population manifesting super powers like raising the dead was interesting. The ethical questions generally got pushed onto the backburner while Oscar makes friends with other-dimensional creatures. He then goes on to say things like "these creatures are nicer to me than any people here!" after several people are very nice to him (Truelove, Downer, that other guy).

I have plenty of other complaints, but I'll end with the one about the author seeming to be fairly ignorant of military stuff. Oscar starts out the book as the leader of an army detachment that tries to capture renegade magic users. He is also the helicopter pilot for his team. What? Really? So he's gonna be the leader by dropping them off and flying away? Don't give me any lip about him viewing the battlefield from above or using the helicopters' weapons to support his team. There's a word for the guy in the chopper and it's pilot.

The list goes on and on - but do yourself a favor and read Codex Alera by Jim Butcher instead.

mix of Heros, Expendable, and Hunger games

What disappointed you about Control Point?

Almost every thing.
- The plot is almost a complete rip off of TV series from Heros. With a slight military flavor and limited set of super powers.
- The dialog of the Expendable. yes just about that bad.
- The main Character " a full grown man" has the same emotions of the hunger games teenage girl. It possibly even worse than the third hunger games book/movie.
- Oh yea, he also through in Jar Jar Binks for good measure. The sad thing is that Jar Jar Binks probably the most intelligent character.

I am not sure what to compare with but the tactics is frustratingly stupid. I am not a pretending to be a military expert. But seriously this was bad even by Hollywood standards. So I seriously hope our national security is never really dependent on this mans intelligence. Because if so we are screwed.

Has Control Point turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, since the problem is the author, who would probably ruin any genre.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

yes, the narrator did a decent job with what he had to work with. There narrator was the only thing that made the story bearable. (that and the unrealistic hope it would get better)

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Frustration, hope, Frustration, Disappointment, Frustration, a little hope, Frustration, Anger, Frustration, and more Frustration.Ok, not the most frustration book I have ever read, but it is close.

Any additional comments?

I are curious like me and you will probably listen anyways. So am warning you that it continually get worse for the entire book. You will want to believe it can get better and the book might be saved. This is do to little parts of the book that aren't too bad. But do not trust this feeling it is false...... I warned you.

Great concept, poorly executed

Any additional comments?

The concept of a government-regulated magical department showed such great promise, but sadly fizzled. The main character is an officer that is at once perceptive and idiotic, making the worst possible decisions throughout the story. The story never explains the reasoning of the government enough to justify the main character's or other side character's actions. The most infuriating part is, unfortunately, the main character's insistance on making such bad decisions that you'd think he was a teenager instead of an educated individual with a bachelor's degree and classes on decesion-making and leadership.

Interesting story ruined by protgonist

Would you try another book from Myke Cole and/or Corey Jackson?

Not likely another book by the author, can't fault the narrator for the material.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Story premise had potential maybe a more capable author could do something with the universe.

Any additional comments?

This is painful to listen to, the protagonist is whiny and immature more akin to an adolescent than some one that is supposed to lead people. It's a battle of wills to listen to this audio book to completion.

Repetetive and whiny

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I don't think it could have been, the premise while at first interesting soon became trite and boring. The idea's been done better elsewhere.

Would you ever listen to anything by Myke Cole again?

Not based on this book, definately left a bad taste in my mouth.

What three words best describe Corey Jackson’s performance?

It was as strong as the story could allow it to be.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It tried.

Any additional comments?

Out of the 15 and change hours of material, I honestly gave it till there was only about 3 and a half hours left before I gave up on it. If I had to go through one more "I hate it here, but its my family now and I'm doing good but wait I'm a slave and I need out" teeter totter ride over the course of a single chapter I would have screamed. The main character is whiny, the supporting cast is one dimensional, and the single redeeming character, Marty, is never allowed to develop to anything worthwhile... or if he is, I didn't have the patience to get there. Glad I only spent 4 dollars on this book, even happier I'm on to something better.

Whiny and unintelligent main character

Would you try another book from Myke Cole and/or Corey Jackson?

I don't think I would. I don't like main characters that are incapable acting on their own, and when he finally does act, after tons of provocation, he acts like a moron.And the way the author tries to create moral dilemmas, when there isn't any, by mixing unrelated subjects, left me feeling irritated.

Which character ??? as performed by Corey Jackson ??? was your favorite?

Cilla, she is the only character in the book with a clear idea of how wrong the hole setup is.She might be portrayed as over the top, but it's hard to say since we don't know more of her background story, but in the end, I would have preferred her as the main character.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Control Point?

Most of Britton's whining in the last half of the book.

Any additional comments?

I liked the story setup and and background, but the story it self was annoying.

Disappointing

What disappointed you about Control Point?

Protagonist and narration. There was so much potential with this story, but I simply did not like the main character. Not only did he seem selfish and ignorant, some of his actions did not make sense.

The narrator, especially compared to other Fantasy narrators (James Marsters on the Dresden Files, Roy Dotrice on Song of Ice and Fire) was not good. He could emote, but there was very little distinction between most characters.

Would you ever listen to anything by Myke Cole again?

Probably not.

Would you be willing to try another one of Corey Jackson’s performances?

No. I give better performances to my kids reading them bedtime stories.

What character would you cut from Control Point?

Protagonist.

Any additional comments?

I really wanted to like this story and stuck it out to the end, hoping the resolution would redeem it in some way. But even the conclusion left me wanting.