Kill Decision

By: Daniel Suarez

Narrated by: Jeff Gurner

Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

The shocking techno-thriller that cements Daniel Suarez's status as the heir to Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy - a terrifying, breathtaking, and all-too-plausible vision of the world's near future.

Unmanned weaponized drones already exist: they're widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East. In Kill Decision, best-selling author Daniel Suarez takes that fact and the real science behind it one step further, with frightening results.

Linda McKinney is a myrmecologist, a scientist who studies the social structure of ants. Her academic career has left her entirely unprepared for the day her sophisticated research is conscripted by unknown forces to help run an unmanned - and thanks to her research, automated - drone army. Odin is the secretive Special Ops soldier with a unique insight into the faceless enemy who has begun to attack the American homeland with drones programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention.

Together, McKinney and Odin must slow this advance long enough for the world to recognize its destructive power, because for thousands of years the "kill decision" during battle has remained in the hands of humans - and off-loading that responsibility to machines will bring unintended, possibly irreversible, consequences.

But as forces even McKinney and Odin don't understand begin to gather, and death rains down from above, it may already be too late to save humankind from destruction at the hands of our own technology.

©2012 Daniel Suarez (P)2012 Penguin Audio

pretty good

well written and nice voice for audiobook. sometimes professor is a bit too silly which can be annoying.

Kill Decision - a must read

A very compelling and intriguing story of high tech warfare and military self righteousness that has gone wrong!

interesting

A first time author for me suggested by audible. The genre for this book is techno thriller and from that perspective it was interesting. The author was a technology consultant to the US Gov't's defense industry so from a technical angle he should know what he's talking about. I think it's amazing that Google maps and MapQuest have mapped out the entire globe and it's at our fingertips. I know I kind of suspect that out government plus others and the bad guys we are fighting have taken technology to levels that are incomprehensible. This book takes you there and paints a picture of how technology might be used in the near future, who knows, maybe it already is. With drone use currently in the news, this book is really apropos but the author takes the technology to even greater levels than drones. The author weaves an interesting tale integrating in these new technologies. You wonder if it isn't far fetched then eerily think that is just might not be so far fetched. If anything it's a bit disconcerting and scary even. If you like these kinds of books, you'll like this one.

Very Very Thought Provoking!!

Good solid plot. Likeable characters. Good narrator.Very thought provoking in the realm of robotics. A good listen. Not exactly a "page turner" but a good listen nevertheless. Go ahead and spend a credit. You won't be disappointed.

Another winner from Suarez!

This was worth the wait. I hoped Mr. Suarez could continue to produce at the high caliber he started with in Daemon and Freedom. He can. Jeff Gurner does another fine job performing this book. I had a hard time turning it off; the action kept me absorbed and the story was interesting on a technical level as well as on a gut level. It was refreshing to have a strong and intelligent female character who wasn't domineering. The mysterious Oden and his crew quickly became familiar and I wouldn't mind seeing them again in another story. If you like action, detail, science, and technology with some human interest thrown in, you'll enjoy this book.

Thank you Leo and Steve!

Would you listen to Kill Decision again? Why?

I have read Daniel Suarez's other books so when Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson mentioned it on Security Now, I had to pick it up immediately. Excellent theme, excellent details, very exciting!

Excellent book and narrator

Daniel Suarez is one of the most gifted writers of our time. love his work

Not for me

While I didn't enjoy this book some people might. I prefer more story telling, and plot. About 2/3 of this book is a running, non stop gun battle that is so wildly fanciful, I completely lost interest. I just wanted it to end. If you like not stop shooting, running and totally unbelievable situations, this may be a fun read.

Disappointing

Suarez comes up with great stories but he is in desperate need of a co-author, probably a woman, to help him with dialogue. His characters talk too much or at the wrong times and say things that just don’t seem appropriate to the situation. Worse, some characters say nothing when one or two sentences could head off a major problem. The result is a story that drags. The characters are unlikable because smart people have to be dumb to put them in situations that lead to lengthy, predictable action sequences. The only good thing about those is that The details almost never matter so one can usually just go to the last minute of the chapter and get the resolution. The story was interesting enough to make me want to power through, but this is the first of his books that I wouldn’t recommend to a friend.

Techno profit

This is a great book. It is scary at how close we are to having cheap expendable weapons that can quickly shift the balance of world power. Drones are cheap enough now and so easy to program that anyone can have a killer army.