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

Another great Suarez Techno Thriller

What other book might you compare Kill Decision to and why?

I like to compare Kill Decision to Suarez's earlier books Daemon and Freedom. The author looks into how technology can go astray.

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

I've listened to Jeff's performance Suarez's earlier books Daemon and Freedom. He has delivered another great performance.

Any additional comments?

There is probably a follow up novel that moves the story forward, similar to what Freedom did to Daemon.

Fantastic

The story was fantastic and the reader was equally as great. I would highly recommend anything Daniel Suarez does.

Entertaining

I really enjoyed listening to this. I just couldn't wait to find out what happened. I thought it was suspenseful from start to finish, although I thought it perhaps was all resolved a bit too quickly. The idea of a robot being based on an ant intelligence was clever. This was a great one!

Great Story, Okay Prose, Performance Lacking

Any additional comments?

I fully enjoyed this story, but had a difficult time dealing with the two dimensional narrative.

Suarez is 3 for 3

If you have read Daemon and Freedom(TM) - or even if you haven't - you are going to love this book. Everything he has come up with is plausible and believable, to the point that I keep looking over my shoulder for these things!

Sound but not great

I’m a big fan of both of the Daemon books (Daemon and Freedom) even though they scared the bejesus out of me, and I highly recommend them both.
So I was looking forward to Kill Decision. Although I did enjoy it overall, it just didn’t wow me like the Daemon books.

Daniel Suarez is at his strongest when he’s terrifying you with the implications of technology, current and future. In Kill Decision, though, he introduces a rom-com element that wasn’t in the Daemon books, and it is disappointingly formulaic both in the personalities of the two characters and in the predictable progression of their relationship. In fact, most of the characters are somewhat stereotypical. The other characters don’t bother me, perhaps because they’re secondary. This romance, however, forms a major part of the book.
So I guess if you like romantic novels it’ll probably enhance your enjoyment of Kill Decision, but I don’t particularly like romantic novels and it was a little annoying and off-putting.

Interesting Build Up, Odd Finish

Good book, but not a great book. The beginning is really good, the build up is enjoyable, the characters interesting. Something happens midway through the book, and the final act feels way off from the rest.

Suarez delivers another techno-miracle!

WI/NWI-4 This book is masterful in how it uses cutting edge technology in fiction. I believe he has created a new genre called techno-thriller. Definitely WI (worth it)!

Plot-5 As always with this author, a detailed and amazing plot that relies on high tech knowledge. How can you guess where a plot line will go when you've never heard of the elements of the plot? The only thing I've ever read that is close to it it Prey, by Michael Circhton. Ingenious. 10 years from now, the techno aspects will no longer be amazing. Will the book be great then? It'll be interesting to see!

Characterization-2 Each character has an assigned name and expertise. They stick to their assigned professions, but they all seem like the same person, other than what they know and do. These books are not about character--they're about high tech and how it affects society.

Violence-4 A lot of shooting, but not a lot of blood.

Grossness-3 Not too bad. people get shot, people die, lots of people die, but it's not described in disgusting detail. It just happens.

Sex-1 Some kissing.

Supernatural Elements-0 No supernatural stuff here. This is all technology. It might seem like magic, tho.

Crossing the Line-0 Not really. This author stays within cultural okay-ness, and doesn't kill any dogs. Good for him!

Setting-2 Not any setting in particular, this is set all over the world. The paces are described well, tho, and were interesting. Just not enveloping.

Deeper Message-5 This book talks about sociology, and says that with technology, we could be returning to a feudal system of law. WHoever has the money will rule. Very interesting, and well presented.

Performance-5 Jeff Gurner does an amazing job reading all the techno words correctly. Just kidding, he delivers a great performance.

This is a let down after Daemon.

What didn’t you like about Jeff Gurner’s performance?

Gurner seems to do his best with paper thin characters, but I don't care for his accented character voices

Any additional comments?

Implausible plot turns, paper-thin characters, this is well short of his first two books.

Another winner for Suarez

The pacing is nimble and the characters well developed. My not be up to the level of some of Suarez' past efforts, but a hugely entertaining ride nonetheless. Highly recommended.