Shadow Ops: Control Point

This is a tough book to rate, as for much of the book I absolutely loved it. Yet the main character and only viewpoint is probably my most hated literary character I've ever read. What makes it worse is that the main character Oscar Britton is really inconsistent in why he's frustrating, other than that he's always incredibly whiny. At the beginning of the book he's constantly going over and over about how bad it was to have to kill two teenagers that had just gone on a murdering rampage and had to be stopped, yet he has no problem killing hundreds or thousands of innocent men and women later in the book for negligible reasons. He seems to love being in the military at the beginning of the book, but the second he comes up as a Latent he thinks the government is pure evil (I thought this book almost read anti-military/government at times), he hates/can't stand working for what's really just a different branch of the military, and won't stop for the whole book trying to figure out a way to run away. It felt like in every chapter there would be a lot of cool stuff going on where the author would build a fantastic world, have great character interaction/growth, and have a fun to read magic military training story only to end the chapter with the main character again droning on and on about how everything sucked and that he has to find a way to escape. Other than the main character, the only other problem I had with the book was the fact that there really isn't any over-arching story other than Oscar the Grouch wanting to run away. I can boil the story down to the following spoliery summary: a military man gains outlawed magical powers overnight, he decides to run for goofy reasons, he gets caught and sent to a secret magic school where he trains under a generic douche bag Sergent (I can't remember his exact title) and becomes a teleporting badass, he participates in a few missions that he's not sure he likes after which he runs again for goofy reasons killing thousands of soldiers in the process so he can set up a group that's a third option for people that come up Latent (Which is very similar atm to the Selfer terrorists).I would give the book a much lower score if I hadn't really love reading it. It's a great look at what would probably actually happen in the world if random people gained dangerous magical powers overnight. The characters, when Oscar isn't being a whiny douche bag, are mostly very well done, with the exception of the Drill Sergent who is completely evil for no apparent reason other than to give the reader someone to hate. The fight scenes are generally well written, though some of the hand to hand combat could be a little hard to visualize/follow. The flow of the writing in the book is great, with it being a real page turner when I wasn't yelling at Oscar to stop being an idiot. The world of the Source and its Goblin indigenous humanoids also provide a great mirror to the war in Afghanistan, where some of the Indig are contractors that work with the Americans and are treated like dirt, and the rest of the Indig are constantly attacking the US encampment. Oscar even has a very interesting relationship with one of the Goblins, but that's ruined as it's used to initiate the worst part of the book.The following is a straight spoiler, but I feel like I have to talk about it as it was one of the most frustrating parts of a book that I've ever read. This plot twist was very heavily/sloppily foreshadowed, where Oscar's Goblin BFF was fired for eating a dead soldier's eyes (which is an Indig custom for the passing of an honored friend) and Oscar decides that this was a death sentence and he has to save him. Now instead of using his likely pull as an incredibly important/valuable Latent or just teleport to the Goblin's side and take him to safety, he decides that he has to immediately get the bomb out of his heart. Now instead of using his Healer girlfriend or the mind controlled flesh eating worm, he decides to go to the incredibly dangerous/murderous Witch (can cause anything to rot away with a thought) that the US government for some reason keeps locked up with minimum security and might possibly be willing/able to destroy the bomb in his heart. After she's released, the Witch of course immediately goes on a murderous rampage where she kills a bunch of innocent soldiers and destroys the entire camp's defenses (I don't know why she didn't do this the previous time she escaped). After Oscar sees her rampage, something which anyone with a modicum of intelligence would have expected, he then refuses to escape with her, consequentially leaving the bomb in his heart. Then something even more frustrating occurs that negates the whole purpose of the previous disaster, where the healer girlfriend easily takes the bomb out of Oscar Britton's heart with no negative consequences. Now I admit that this scene was cool, but I was so frustrated reading it that I had to put the book down for awhile.Overall, I wouldn't strongly recommend this book, but I did enjoy it and it is a great mix of military and fantasy fiction. The style of the book is really interesting, where the soldiering aspects of the book reads really true, more so than possibly any other book I've read. This does cause a slight learning curve with an extreme use of anagrams, but once you know them it makes everything quicker and unique. It's really easy to tell that Myke Cole has a lot of talent as an author, the choices he made with the main character are just odd. I can only assume that he was trying to create an anti-hero which would change the game in this Urban Fantasy world that he created. However, he came off as neither a hero or a villain, and even when reading the character's rationalization of his actions it didn't make any sense. What's even stranger is that from the other characters, I'm pretty sure that Cole can create and grwo some really interesting characters. Thankfully, I believe that the main viewpoint character is changed for the second book. So I have already bought the sequel and I have high hopes for it, as long as it actually has a story and a slightly less annoying idiotic main character.

I've known Myke Cole had a novel coming out for the past six months. Myke and I are both part of the same medieval reenactment fighting group. I've known him for the past fifteen years, although I don't get to see him much these days. Myke is one of the most intense people I know: he's got a degree in history, worked as a civilian contractor in Iraq and currently serves as an officer in the U. S. Coast Guard. Naturally, I bought the kindle edition the first day it was available.He recently talked about the genesis of the book in a podcast interview. While working as a civilian contractor at the Pentagon, Myke started wondering what would happen if, in the myriad of departments, there was an office devoted to magical creatures. Military spec elves, werewolves, etc. Combining this with his work around the defense department, Shadow Ops was born.The book starts off with plenty of action. Oscar Britton is serving with the New Jersey Air National Guard and is flying in to stop a group of kids from burning down a high school. They're working with a federal counter-terrorism agency and closing in fast on the burning building. Just before they make contact, Their Special Ops commander, call sign "Harlequin", leaps out of the chopper and soars into the sky.Welcome to the world of the Great Reawakening.At some point in the near future, magic has begun to manifest itself in the world. People with natural magical abilities, known as "Latents" can summon fire, control water, reanimate the dead, or heal. Most of the abilities fall into designated categories: a healer is known as a "Physiomancer" for his or her ability to repair or damage flesh. Certain classifications of offensive magic, known as "Probes" (as in Prohibited) are forbidden by Geneva conventions.Since all Latents are considered potential dangers to society, they are rounded up and pressed into the Supernatural Operations Core (SOC) in the United States. Other countries have similar laws. Most Latents have very little understanding of their powers when they first manifest, each one is a potential time bomb. The novel makes references to buildings collapsing and acts of congress to suppress the Latents. The book never gives statistics, but the reader gets the feeling Latents make up less than %0.5 of the population.Those Latents who don't want to end up as state property have the choice of fleeing or joining groups of others who've manifested supernatural abilities. Known as "Selfers" they are outside the law and quickly vanish into secret government camps if arrested. In one sense, it's not hard to understand the state of emergency surrounding the manifestations. What happens when a fourteen-year-old kid suddenly can send fire down on anyone who pisses him off? And what happens when a serial killer discovers she has magical powers?Oscar Britton soon discovers that he has prohibited powers: he can bring a gateway into place. He's a "Portamancer", one of the prohibited magical abilities. But he doesn't know how to control the ability and suddenly the gate snaps open, sending into our world dangerous creatures from the "Source", or magical, plane. All of which makes him a dangerous fugitive from the law. Britton decides to run, but, like the song says, he doesn't get far.Britton finds himself thrown into a training coven of the Sorcerer's Apprentice program in the US Army. He's given the choice of signing up or execution. Naturally, he chooses to sign. But the government has another way of keeping him in line: an explosive implant next to his heart. If Britton runs or gates out, they will detonate it. The training camp where he finds himself is on the Source world where the army has established a Forward Operating Base (FOB). Many of the local inhabitants, small green-skinned creatures known as goblins, have declared war on the base and are constantly bombarding it with magical weapons at every chance. Others work inside the base with the humans.It's a little to easy to compare this novel with current events. And I do see lot of similarities between the Jihadis in Afghanistan or Iraq. But this is a fantasy novel first and foremost. Myke does tackle a lot of moral issues in Shadow Ops: what is the right thing to do if your government is taking immoral actions to stop evil? How do you keep society intact without become a sadistic monster? The military doesn't come off in the best light in this novel: Britton's training warrant office, Fitzsimmons is portrayed as a brute.At the same time, the Selfers aren't shown to be much better. The Apache nation rises up in revolt against the US government with the help of magic. The rebels have no hesitation of massacring anyone who opposes them. There's a gripping scene in a New York Sewer where the SOC conscripts and the local SWAT team battles a protoplasmic Selfer monstrosity.The novel ends with a lot of the issues unresolved. We never really do find out why the military has established a fire base on the Source world. Nor do we find out why some of the Goblins cooperate with the human military. I suspect more will be revealed in the next book since it's been marketed as a series. Still, I'm old-fashioned enough to want my books concluded by the final page.This is an excellent first novel by a new writer. Don't go into this book expecting Starship Troopers with wizards. But it is a compelling read.

More of a 2.5 than a 3, the reasons for which I'll get to shortly but first the good ...The big draw to buy this one is the concept: a magic "re-awakening" occurs in the world and some people turn up as "latent", manifesting one particular power or another.The cover quote (from the brilliant Peter V Brett) relating this to X-Men & Black Hawk Down is pretty close. The government oppression of "latents", the fear among the regular public, the group of latents who feel they are superior to regular humans: all similar in concept to X-Men.The close-quarters intense action and a particular high level of military-related authenticity – similar to BHD.And these are the main strengths of the book: the magic system and the action. The action is well written: explosive and gripping. The first quarter or so of the book goes past very quickly largely because of the amount of action, but also because the introduction of the book's magic world is so interesting.There is a sense that the magic could be taken further (no ability to "mix" powers?) and yet also that there are too many different kinds of manifested powers introduced at once, some of which seem pretty tame ... but on the whole, this aspect is well handled and thought provoking.Onto the negative – prime real estate owned (almost) entirely by a single character: the protagonist, Oscar Britton.I found Britton – a military heli-pilot who manifests a rare and particularly useful power – spectacularly irritating.There are a few main issues I have with the character: first, while he seems to competent in training and on early missions, he makes some awfully bad decisions that he knows are bad (via inner monologue) and most of them end out really bad, to no surprise; second, the endless flip-flopping of his allegiances, often within the same chapter: one moment he's gung-ho and another he's desperately trying to break free, it gets a bit much; lastly, the way he tells everyone his feelings and gets in everyone's face for any opinion that he disagrees with: why can't he just figure out his own path and keep quiet for once?Also for someone who was already military-minded at the beginning of the book, displays a surprisingly lack of comradery at times.Other than the protag, the remaining characters are pretty cookie-cutter stereotypical: the cruel, annoying drill-instructor type (Fitzy); the "don't call me a young girl" naive young girl (Downer); the beautiful healer girlfriend-material type (Therese).As such, the comparison to X-Men wavers here ... X-Men has the characters too.The ending, without any spoilers, involves an OTT amount of blood & destruction and an astonishing lack of logic – but, does at least give a glimmer of hope that something different may be on the way in the 2nd book.I think I will get around to the 2nd book (Fortress Frontier) on the strength of the story & action alone (also appears to have a new protagonist?), but it goes to the back of the To-Read list.

A 3.5 Rating.Control Point is a military come urban fantasy set in present times, although much of the action takes place in a parallel realm at the source of the magic now inflicting the world and the people in it.The tale follows the modern US armed forces whose ranks are supplemented by the SOC or the Supernatural Operations Corps, a division of magically gifted soldiers. The power of the gifted or the Latent as they are known in the story range from the control of basic elements such as the weather, the earth, fire and water. To the ability to fly, mend flesh, suppress another's magical ability, control animals and the more rare and much sought after abilities of reanimating the dead and portamancy or creating portals to move anywhere at will.The story's protagonist is Oscar Britton a military officer and we join him in an operation with a SOC team sent to take out two latent teenagers, illegally using their magic at a school. Oscar does all he can to prevent bloodshed but is left feeling hollow as the power of those around him leave him unable to effect the outcome and he can't understand the need of the SOC team to end the lives of the children harnessing an untrained and deadly ability.After the mission Oscar's world is turned upside down as his own latency erupts, he can't control it and seeing the way the SOC deal with latent's he decides the only way to save his life is to run.Oscar is a likable but flawed character, his indecisiveness can be annoying as his allegiances constantly change from abhorring his situation and wanting to escape the military, to revelling in his new ability to do some good and then back again as the wind changes direction. Come on make your mind up.Every review of this book praises it and I read it due to it being highly recommended by a lot of reviewers I follow. The action is immense and the ending bought a satisfactory conclusion to the story, both the military and magical sides of the story were handled superbly. However I never really bought into the lead character and there were to many stereotypical roles for my liking, the bullying sergeant major character, the impressionable teenager, the tall dark handsome lead man and his love interest to name a few.There is a lot of potential here for a debut novel though and I will definitely read the second novel but it won't be at the top of my to read pile.

I enjoyed this book. It reminds me of a Lee Childs/Jack Reacher with magic and more family involved. The story is fast paced and there is no let up. The main hero gets thrown into situation after situation - there is a lot for him to overcome. My only (very slight) gripe is the main hero does some stupid things occasionally and changes his mind more often than his underwear (there is no mention of underwear changing - not a bad thing!!).Having finished this one I immediately bought the next! - what better recommendation is there than that.

Myke Cole has carved out an interesting science fiction niche by blending magical fantasy with hard-core military action... and he obviously knows the latter like the back of his hand, so in that respect the book has a nice authentic feel about it. I'm not really a massive fan of the sword-and-sorcery genre, but I was pulled along by his energetic writing. Several moments stand out, like the body horror of a scene set underground, in which the protagonists tackle a powerful shape-shifting enemy who nearly turns them all into a bucket full of butcher's off-cuts. I had a slight problem with the "rage against the machine" attitude of the central character, which I thought sometimes became a bit tiresome... in general, though, a fun read.

After reading the Jack Randall books, i was looking for something as accurate and entertaining, finding it here. Written in a similar fashion with article openers and excerpts that fill out the world, without bogging down the story with unnecessary explanation, you get a solid piece of work. Fast to start a bit slow in the middle but engaging all the way through, i look forward to the rest of the books.