Myke Cole ’s “ military fantasy ” Shadow Ops serial has been unpredictable all along . In Control Point , he tell the ancestry story . In Fortress Frontier , he recite a quest , while in Breach Zone , he zoomed in on a single battle . With his latest installment , Gemini Cell , he does something really unexpected : a romance .
Some freebooter ahead …
Granted , this is a book containing Navy SEALs , reanimated zombies , rival sorcerers , private military procedure and a whole lot of gunshot , but it ’s a romance yet . And , that ’s a good matter .
In his retiring Quran , Cole has leap from character to character , often play with some really cool ideas and world : the secondary worldly concern of the Source inControl PointandFortress Frontierare tremendous to behold , but early on , it was clear that these were populace - and - idea books , rather than character books . With Gemini Cell , Cole has nail the characters better than ever before , weave together a heartbreaking story of a Navy SEAL and his married woman as they ’re separated by death .
Gemini Cell also contains an first-class chronicle that looks late into something the military community faces each day : the prospect of losing a love one to combat operations far from abode , and get by with that personnel casualty in the day , weeks and months after the fact . Jim Schweitzer is a SEAL on the top of his game : when he and his team are deploy out to a shipment ship , they find something unexpected , and shortly thereafter , Schweitzer is attacked and killed in his home .
Normally , that would be the end of his news report , but he ’s awoken soon after : a midway easterly wizard has resurrected Jim ’s spirit along with a malevolent Jinn , as part of a young military computer program have advantage of a charming awakening in the globe . Schweitzer ’s young job is to go where others ca n’t : where the monetary value is too high to send in even Special Forces soldier . His married woman , he ’s told , is dead , along with is babe son . The only way to retaliate their expiry , he ’s told , is to collaborate and aid them figure out who ’s responsible .
On the other side , Schweitzer ’s wife Sarah has been left behind . She and their son survived the attack , only to watch that Schweitzer had been kill . Worse , she never baffle a chance to see the eubstance , while the Navy quiet shuts her out . Her man , tolerate only by one of Schweitzer ’s teammate , Chang , is one that I ’ve take heed much about throughout the War on Terror . The military machine stay a closely - knit community to abide family while their love ones are deployed , but when there ’s a death in the kinfolk , there ’s an awkward reshuffle and an almost closing of rank . This is n’t cosmopolitan , to be sure , but it ’s not unheard of .
With Gemini Cell , Cole is telling a unique story from the experiences of the War on Terror , and it ’s a novel that can be read severally of the remainder of his Shadow Ops series ( chronologically , it takes position before the events of Control Point , Fortress Frontier and Breach Zone ) . The experiences of US Service Members is a chronicle that ’s largely overlook outside of military circles , and the battle that families face up after a decennary and a one-half of abroad combat operations is a toll that is tragical , damaging and long - permanent . It ’s a alone level that shows that the experiences of these families are vastly dissimilar than their counterparts of earlier war .
It ’s a storey that need to be told . Lingering under this novel is a existent horror for many families : the unseen psychological effects of war . Schweitzer is literally damage from his experience , hold together by thaumaturgy and craftsmanship from the Gemini Cell ’s agent . Imbued with a Jinn , Cole uses some neat tricks to show off the real difference in war : on one hand , there ’s the extremely trained professional in a modern army , while on the other , a sullen look who ’s only frame of reference is the maleness - force back acts of unionized violence . Schweitzer is at warfare in his own body ; not just for his mortal , but for the person he once was and for the person he wants to be .
On top of all this , Cole seems to delight in tear genre conventions : this novel , after all , is in the first place a romance : the story between Sarah and Jim is the central column of what move each character . Say all you want about the theoretic conflict in warfare between ancient and modern times , the ethics of war and its effect : what drives Gemini Cell is their strong puff to one another . It ’s an heroic story : pulled apart by war , a couple overcomes an impossible gap in their relationship to once again reunite . Cole pulls it together marvelously , and he illustrates both Jim and Sarah with a wonderful amount of complexness and profundity to each .
As the latest Word in what ’s sure to be a longer - run series , Cole has resisted the temptation to spin out sequel after sequel featuring the same character reference fight down many of the same engagement . Gemini Cell , like its siblings , demonstrates the complexity of the world in which Cole can tell legion level , each unique , thinking - provoking and entertaining all at once .
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