Review: Excellent what-if of drones, wish that he fine-tuned some details
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2013
I read about this in one of his TechCrunch articles. For the vast majority of the book, I thought that there was no drone apocalypse. It happens at the very end.I found the style very much like Barry Eisler's style, minus that Japanese influence. Jon Evans also happens to have a better grasp of technology (not surprising in the least) and a good basic knowledge of how brains and artificial intelligence work. The mini-drones are actually hilarious because in-the-field iterations of them exist already and are actively used. It's close to Barry Eisler's Ben Treleven books, minus Ben's military background. The hapless protagonist, Kowalski, is very similar to "The Intersect" in Chuck (TV). He's just an average guy with specialized knowledge thrust into situations beyond his ken.Like Barry Eisler, one of Jon Evans' failings is the way that they oversimplify women and their actions. Also, the protagonist gets physically beaten up so often that I find it unlikely. The pseudo-French is not extremely great, but I'm a French translator and probably a bit picky.Despite those small things, I really enjoyed this book. Ursula K. Le Guin says that all science fiction is a what-if and Jon Evans does a great job. He also quotes Richard Heinlein a lot, which I enjoyed. There are tons of cultural references in the book. It's also interesting that he chose Russia as the enemy and not China, which tends to be the enemy du jour. If anybody's robotics capabilities should be feared, it's Japan's.It would be incredible if Jon Evans and Barry Eisler teamed up for a crossover, even if it was simply a short story.