Control Point

Shadow Ops

By: Myke Cole

Narrated by: Corey Jackson

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)

Satire About the Contemporary Military Experience

I haven't finished the book. But, I want to speak against many of the negative reviews.

This is satire. So, when people liken the book to Haldeman's Forever War, they are really talking about the second half of that book.

The book really thinks about social equality and inequality, the use of contractors and indigenous people in American military expeditions, and the bureaucratic messes involved in that.

Further, the narrator is very expressive. However, he is African American and the viewpoint character is also African American. If you don't know that version of American English, then you might not appreciate his skill.

This is good science fiction in its political, fabulous, best.

Lots of potential

I think the story has a lot of potential, so I'm reading the next one.

This book should stay in the shadows

The narrator did a great job. Each character was distinct and even though the story line was weak the narrator kept my attention.

The main character (Oscar Brittain) was lame and just when you think he's going to become something he just screws up some more. Struggled to finish the book just hoping my time and money would be rewarded with a decent ending, but what a let down.

Zzzzzz..SNORT! Sorry, it's this snoozy audiobook!

What a letdown, too contrived, too much detail when not needed, and a sloppy storyline. Myke, you can do better. In fact, I'm hoping you do. See, this has potential. A LOT of potential. But somehow, this didn't hit the mark. I expected a different take on this genre', and somehow, you moved smoothly into the typical, mundane, and the predictable.

Myke, do us all a favor and do a rewrite. Do YOURSELF a favor, and write something else, ANYTHING else, as this should NOT be what you're known for in the audiobook industry. That would be a tragic shame.

Good listen.

"Great story!" slow start but worthwhile to listen to. I will buy the next book.

Annoying but worth it

This book is intense and has so much awesome, that it is hard to stop listening.

Myke Cole is a God.

No other words are really necessary, but Audible is insisting. So yeah. Awkward extra words.

Interesting American Military-fantasy blend

Narrator was pretty good, but could've used a wider range of voices. The characters and plot kind of dragged for me: essentially a soldier trying to reconcile how much he likes being a soldier against the frequency of him being ordered to do things that go against his morals(which can be problematic for a profession where all you do is follow orders). Yes there's lots of magic, and it's fantastic and all, but the protagonist is so wishy washy. He wants to do good in the world but signs away(or rather coerced away) his right to have any say in what he does, with the obvious parallels to soldiers in reality. The whole reason I got this book was the recommendation of Joe Abercrombie's website because I wanted more books about large scale battles with maneuvers and orders and whatnot but this book had none of that. It was packed to the gills with military stuff, but not what I was looking for.

I have never met a main character I hated more.

This is the first time I have ever left a review, despite hundreds of hours of listening time on Audible. I have finally decided to write one because this is the worst main character I have ever had the misfortune of listening to. He is selfish, assumptive, whiny, and too full of himself to take a look around the world he has been thrust into. I am now a quarter of the way through the book, and only hanging in the band the world is so interesting. If Oscar doesn't get his act together soon, I don't see ever finishing this book.

Interesting concept, dragged in the beginning

Would you consider the audio edition of Control Point to be better than the print version?

We all have our own minds set on what the characters would sound like and look like in real life, I think the narrator did an average job, with some characters not enough voice differential to tell where one character's speech ended and the other began.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Most interesting aspect of the story was the 'what if' factor, of how a world deals with true magic coexisting with every day regular joes. The least interesting part was the what I perceived to be the constant whining by the protagonist of the story, with too much character development for some, too little for others. That and the sudden appearance of 'the source' without any insight into how its existence was discovered, is it a parallel world, or planet in the far reaches of the galaxy? you never find out.

Which scene was your favorite?

The last chapters of the book things picked up the pace rapidly and actually kept me hooked to finish it, prior to that it was too much military posturing and planning to hold my interest for long duration so it took me longer than normal to complete this audio book

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Jack Ryan meets the world of Harry Potter