Review: "Give me but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth." ― Archimedes
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2014
Author Christopher Lee carries a strong potion of writer's magic in his brain. The source of that gift is somewhat of a mystery unless it comes from some occultly planted seeds that have been scattered from his experiences as a special operations commando with the US Navy. He does enter some interesting avenues of thought as a staff writer for Men's Psychology: The Science of Being a Man while living in the Atlanta area where he is a single father for his only daughter. He understands raw and vivid atmosphere creations, the minds of kids, the disparity between youth and manhood, and the fine points of adventure, suspense, horror and humor that make this novel irresistible.Christopher Lee has an obvious affinity for his growing reading public. He speaks to us in a surprisingly caring Preface, daring us to read his new book at night as the writing of it spooked him frequently. But he provides some very cogent information about the book's content that not only seduces us into digging in to the story but also offers some insights that later prove very helpful. `Satellites allow Internet systems to remain operational; homes run via antimatter-generators and solar power, for those few structures that are left standing anyway. Over the years, mankind's inventions have provided the inhabitants of earth with comfort, speed, healing and the like. Usually without a choice, we've taken technologies - good with the bad; pain and death and destruction, those things too we brought on ourselves. Outside of the military battles, this work of fiction primarily centers around two protagonists, Clio and Cy. The former is a twelve-year-old girl while the latter is something quite different. A thousand years in the future, both hang by their fingernails and fight through earth's post-war landscape. The armed services, the Resistance, or freedom fighters if you like; a few warriors from those banners too play their role.' That sort of approach from an author is infrequently found and shows one of the many reasons his novels are gaining in popularity.Lee opens his story with a prologue that offers the history of the creation by Dr Seth Pavlov of Smartbots - (Quantum Artificial Intelligence human like forms that could do anything man could do but better, except they lacked soul - think the current Robotic Surgery craze): `Like the desktop computer in the twenty first century, Smartbots became necessity. The world's armed services got in on the action.'The year, 3000, and soon WW III begins. On a Military Resistance Base in South Carolina (the only other MRB was Camp Pendleton in California) 12- year old Clio pines for her father away at the war when an explosion hits and forces her to a safety vault. Meanwhile a Dr Pressfield, fearing the destiny of Pavlov's original creations, has created a new cyborg - `SCI, pronounced Cy, was made with goodness. In old earth, Cy could be a boy's name or girl's name, meaning Master or Lord. Before the war started, Dr. Pressfield's intention of creating Cy was to revolutionize the world. Heal the sick. Cure cancer. Cripple paralysis. Bringing merciful powers to the shores of mankind in healing reality; that was his dream. Marcus Pressfield always intended his work to point that direction, for goodness sake. Unlike Pavlov's machine driven QAI, Cy was distinctly human in thought, without all the neurotic hang-ups. His intelligence was overseen by a halo of higher-brain order and underneath, emotions coursed inside. The amount of which was unknown to Dr. Marcus Pressfield, yet to be discovered. With the deepest river of feelings, Cy was capable of love; he was capable of compassion, empathy and boundless forgiveness. Cy wasn't capable of hate, jealously, malice or anything sinister that had evolved with man from out of the mud. More than not capable of such things, they weren't part of him. Humans identify with all the bad behavior in others, because all humans do bad things. We all have badness in us - unlike Cy. His advanced design allowed him to be aware when humans did bad things, while never personally partaking in such deeds. But that was in his metal parts, his processors, not his mammalian derived flesh. Cy's personal boundaries had finally arrived at, and achieved, what the ancient religious books worshipped - perfection.' Cy and Clio meet, join forces and together set out to prevent what appears to be the destruction of the world.Lee weaves mad science, compassion, love, and hope together into an apocalyptic novel that is on every level successful. With each new book, this young gifted writer rises in importance. Grady Harp, May 14