Name: The Red
Rating: 3.666666666666667 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9781481440936

Linda Nagata

"Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive--because in a for-profit war there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him, but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger--as if somone or something is whispering warnings in his ear"--Page 4 of cover.

First Light

The Red

"Hazard notice: contains military grade profantiy"--Back cover.

Janice Hopper

This is an exciting book. It's set in the near future when wars are ginned up by defense contractors and soldiers are networked together and more or less cyborged. But there's something in the network that's working for its own ends-- or is it?

I wish military sf didn't make me quite so uncomfortable. It's not a fault of the book per se. The increasingly technological nature of the armed forces and the power (and vulnerability) that comes with it just makes me queasy. So much potential for misuse there. 

This is the first book I've read by Linda Nagata. Now I understand why she's been so praised. :) Good writing & plotting, kept me engrossed in spite of my qualms about the subject matter.

Luke Kanies

This was very well written, and both enjoyable and disquieting.

The worst part of the book is that it requires that you sympathize with super soldiers. Well, or put the book down. Throughout the book it was impossible for me to quite convince myself that the protagonist really was such. That’s why I can’t give it five stars.

With that as a given — and it’s a large caveat — the book is otherwise fast, fun, and gives plenty to think about.

This book definitely does some of the deepest explorations of how drones can change lots of things, especially combat. Drones have been surprisingly sparse in sci-fi books.

I would have liked more in depth exploration of the moral consequences of the protagonist’s choices. But, well, that would have a very different book.

The Red First Light

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