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Currently Reading - 20-May-2015
May. 20th, 2015 07:47 pmState Machine, Rachel Peng Book 3, K B Spangler
So this is gay, Chinese-American, cyborg* Rachel's 3rd outing, the Office of Adaptive and Complementary Technologies has been out in the daylight for a year and people are getting used to the idea of cyborgs working for the Federal government, so when the Secret Service specifically ask for her joint OACET/Washington Metro PD team that doesn't seem too unusual, and does it get any more flattering than being asked to investigate a murder at the White House? They know who did it, they have her on camera smooth-talking her victim into taking her into one of the storage rooms for inter-governmental gifts, what they don't know is what was stolen, or why. They figure out what's missing fairly quickly, and I'm feeling pretty smug at calling its true identity well in advance, and then the investigation takes an unexpected turn and there are celebrations and parties, and that's when the real game begins to unfold. The endgame against OACET's enemy, Senator Hanlon, the man responsible for the OACET agents undergoing five years of brainwashing hell, and a hundred dead agents, is at hand (which also means everyone Rachel knows and works with suddenly finding out she was brainwashed, which brings its own problems) but Hanlon isn't about to go down easily. But nor are Rachel, or her boss Mulcahy, about to let him damage OACET in his fall. Plots have fall-back plots, fall-back plots have further plots hiding beneath them, and past decisions, and new ones, come back to hurt them.
Highlights for me: All the competent women doing competent 'manly' things, not only do we have Rachel chasing her target halfway across Washington on foot, but Hope Blackwell, Mulcahy's wife, and world-class martial artist makes a guest appearance; Ami, OACET's ex-CIA assassin, stages a timely intervention as well as simultaneously driving one of the twisted plots onwards; and even Rachel's banker girlfriend Becca gets to throw in some timely financial questions about motivations for the people involved. Hope's main appearance is a bit fan-servicey, an OACET party sees their foyer boxing ring dragged out of storage and Rachel and Hope go best of three rounds (this is entirely in character with established behaviour for them both, and that boxing ring has driven plot developments before), but there's a spin-off novel about Hope's pursuit of the origin of the stolen item upcoming, so she really needed at least some involvement and as she's not an agent opportunities to directly involve her are limited. I was pleased with the way the emerging poly relationship between Rachel's fellow agents Phil and Jason, and ingenue computer genius Bell was handled, Rachel admits she doesn't understand poly relationships, she's a one-woman kind of girl, but as long as no one is being harmed she's with them all the way. We also get the series' first car chase, and it's a doozy, with Rachel at the wheel - that * against Rachel's diverse attributes is there for the fourth one, she's blind, and even if the implant lets her navigate and 'see', she doesn't trust herself at the wheel - but when everyone else in the car has been shot, and there's a mercenary hit team on your tail....
Things I could have done without: Rachel is working with an expert in the neurology of being blind, in the hope they may develop some way of using the implant's technology to help other blind people, the man's an arsehole, and his surname is Gillion. I have far too many people mis-spell my surname as Gillion (only one i, people!) , the last thing I need is characters perpetuating the mispelling. Admittedly I may be the only person out there to find this an issue.
And as an added bonus at the end of the book we get a very brief excerpt from Greek Key, the upcoming Hope Blackwell novel, which opens up with Hope being held down by two policemen - not because she's under arrest, but to protect the five men who she's already beaten to a pulp after they broke into her and Mulcahy's house, armed with crowbars and a sledgehammer and intent on assaulting her in her sleep. Hope's a very different sort of protagonist to Rachel, but I love them both.
Art Note: I quite liked the cover for the first book, I definitely liked the cover for the second, and I really like the cover for this one - and it's taken me until now to figure out that they're thematically linked. 'Digital Divide' had the Washington Monument, 'Maker Space' had the Lincoln Memorial, while 'State Machine' has the falls at the FDR Memorial (admittedly I needed to be told this as I didn't know there was an FDR Memorial, never mind that it has waterfalls), and in each case the scene plays a role in the book, a passing view in Divide, an incidental scene in Maker Space, and a couple of scenes, one major, in this one (which is probably what finally clued me in).
The Russians Came Knocking, K B Spangler
I wasn't quite ready to come up from the OACET world, so I re-read this, which is a novella revolving around Josh Glassman, Mulcahy's deputy at OACET and a self-described manwhore (the theory was one story for each of his 8 wives, but this is the only one to date). Josh the lothario actually works well for all concerned as Josh's playboy antics keep much of the media focussed on which supermodel was on his arm last night, rather than thinking about the ethics of someone who can walk through any security on the planet, including the nuclear missile launch codes (Josh notes it's smallpox they should really be worrying about). It's difficult to know how to describe this, a romantic comedy with mafiya and squirrels? There are a couple of sex scenes, but there's also a perfectly passable mystery as Josh's neighbour Davie suddenly finds herself being targeted by Russian thugs leaving Josh to come to her rescue, though white knights are typically armed with something better than an enraged squirrel. It's fairly obvious why Davie is being targeted, she's running a big minerals deal, but who's threatening her is somewhat murkier, particularly when the obvious suspect demonstrates he has plausible deniability. Both Rachel and Ami show up in this, as Josh calls in the OACET clan to keep his new girlfriend safe - the man works fast - and Josh makes a perfectly passable protagonist. but he does have a supernatural ability to charm women (and throw a party at no notice), which might not appeal to everyone. OTOH this is actually what makes Rachel a perfect foil for him, she's just not interested and can keep him on track with the 'let's not get our case thrown out of court' side of things.
So this is gay, Chinese-American, cyborg* Rachel's 3rd outing, the Office of Adaptive and Complementary Technologies has been out in the daylight for a year and people are getting used to the idea of cyborgs working for the Federal government, so when the Secret Service specifically ask for her joint OACET/Washington Metro PD team that doesn't seem too unusual, and does it get any more flattering than being asked to investigate a murder at the White House? They know who did it, they have her on camera smooth-talking her victim into taking her into one of the storage rooms for inter-governmental gifts, what they don't know is what was stolen, or why. They figure out what's missing fairly quickly, and I'm feeling pretty smug at calling its true identity well in advance, and then the investigation takes an unexpected turn and there are celebrations and parties, and that's when the real game begins to unfold. The endgame against OACET's enemy, Senator Hanlon, the man responsible for the OACET agents undergoing five years of brainwashing hell, and a hundred dead agents, is at hand (which also means everyone Rachel knows and works with suddenly finding out she was brainwashed, which brings its own problems) but Hanlon isn't about to go down easily. But nor are Rachel, or her boss Mulcahy, about to let him damage OACET in his fall. Plots have fall-back plots, fall-back plots have further plots hiding beneath them, and past decisions, and new ones, come back to hurt them.
Highlights for me: All the competent women doing competent 'manly' things, not only do we have Rachel chasing her target halfway across Washington on foot, but Hope Blackwell, Mulcahy's wife, and world-class martial artist makes a guest appearance; Ami, OACET's ex-CIA assassin, stages a timely intervention as well as simultaneously driving one of the twisted plots onwards; and even Rachel's banker girlfriend Becca gets to throw in some timely financial questions about motivations for the people involved. Hope's main appearance is a bit fan-servicey, an OACET party sees their foyer boxing ring dragged out of storage and Rachel and Hope go best of three rounds (this is entirely in character with established behaviour for them both, and that boxing ring has driven plot developments before), but there's a spin-off novel about Hope's pursuit of the origin of the stolen item upcoming, so she really needed at least some involvement and as she's not an agent opportunities to directly involve her are limited. I was pleased with the way the emerging poly relationship between Rachel's fellow agents Phil and Jason, and ingenue computer genius Bell was handled, Rachel admits she doesn't understand poly relationships, she's a one-woman kind of girl, but as long as no one is being harmed she's with them all the way. We also get the series' first car chase, and it's a doozy, with Rachel at the wheel - that * against Rachel's diverse attributes is there for the fourth one, she's blind, and even if the implant lets her navigate and 'see', she doesn't trust herself at the wheel - but when everyone else in the car has been shot, and there's a mercenary hit team on your tail....
Things I could have done without: Rachel is working with an expert in the neurology of being blind, in the hope they may develop some way of using the implant's technology to help other blind people, the man's an arsehole, and his surname is Gillion. I have far too many people mis-spell my surname as Gillion (only one i, people!) , the last thing I need is characters perpetuating the mispelling. Admittedly I may be the only person out there to find this an issue.
And as an added bonus at the end of the book we get a very brief excerpt from Greek Key, the upcoming Hope Blackwell novel, which opens up with Hope being held down by two policemen - not because she's under arrest, but to protect the five men who she's already beaten to a pulp after they broke into her and Mulcahy's house, armed with crowbars and a sledgehammer and intent on assaulting her in her sleep. Hope's a very different sort of protagonist to Rachel, but I love them both.
Art Note: I quite liked the cover for the first book, I definitely liked the cover for the second, and I really like the cover for this one - and it's taken me until now to figure out that they're thematically linked. 'Digital Divide' had the Washington Monument, 'Maker Space' had the Lincoln Memorial, while 'State Machine' has the falls at the FDR Memorial (admittedly I needed to be told this as I didn't know there was an FDR Memorial, never mind that it has waterfalls), and in each case the scene plays a role in the book, a passing view in Divide, an incidental scene in Maker Space, and a couple of scenes, one major, in this one (which is probably what finally clued me in).
The Russians Came Knocking, K B Spangler
I wasn't quite ready to come up from the OACET world, so I re-read this, which is a novella revolving around Josh Glassman, Mulcahy's deputy at OACET and a self-described manwhore (the theory was one story for each of his 8 wives, but this is the only one to date). Josh the lothario actually works well for all concerned as Josh's playboy antics keep much of the media focussed on which supermodel was on his arm last night, rather than thinking about the ethics of someone who can walk through any security on the planet, including the nuclear missile launch codes (Josh notes it's smallpox they should really be worrying about). It's difficult to know how to describe this, a romantic comedy with mafiya and squirrels? There are a couple of sex scenes, but there's also a perfectly passable mystery as Josh's neighbour Davie suddenly finds herself being targeted by Russian thugs leaving Josh to come to her rescue, though white knights are typically armed with something better than an enraged squirrel. It's fairly obvious why Davie is being targeted, she's running a big minerals deal, but who's threatening her is somewhat murkier, particularly when the obvious suspect demonstrates he has plausible deniability. Both Rachel and Ami show up in this, as Josh calls in the OACET clan to keep his new girlfriend safe - the man works fast - and Josh makes a perfectly passable protagonist. but he does have a supernatural ability to charm women (and throw a party at no notice), which might not appeal to everyone. OTOH this is actually what makes Rachel a perfect foil for him, she's just not interested and can keep him on track with the 'let's not get our case thrown out of court' side of things.
