Crossover is the first novel in a series which follows the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov, an artificial person, or android, created by the League, one side of an interstellar war against the more powerful, conservative Federation. Cassandra is an experimental design — more intelligent, more creative, and far more dangerous than any that have preceded her. But with her intellect come questions, and a moral awakening. She deserts the League and heads incognito into the space of her former enemy, the Federation, in search of a new life.
Her chosen world is Callay, and its enormous, decadent capital metropolis of Tanusha, where the concerns of the war are literally and figuratively so many light years away. But the war between the League and the Federation was ideological as much as political, with much of that ideological dispute regarding the very existence of artificial sentience and the rules that govern its creation. Cassandra discovers that even in Tanusha, the powerful entities of this bloody conflict have wound their tentacles. Many in the League and the Federation have cause to want her dead, and Cassandra’s history, inevitably, catches up with her.
Cassandra finds herself at the mercy of a society whose values preclude her own right even to exist. But her presence in Tanusha reveals other fault lines, and when Federal agents attempt to assassinate the Callayan president, she finds herself thrust into the service of her former enemies, using her lethal skills to attempt to protect her former enemies from forces beyond their ability to control. As she struggles for her place and survival in a new world, Cassandra must forge new friendships with old enemies, while attempting to confront the most disturbing and deadly realities of her own existence
The first book in Joel Shepherd's Cassandra Kresnov trilogy, Crossover is a non-stop science fiction action thriller that manages to ask the question without ever actually asking the question. Freedom, self-determination, loneliness, natural vs. created -- all come sneaking in under a plot that would make Jerry Bruckheimer proud. The characters are well-developed and easy to root for, and Shepherd manages to mirror the personal in the public without a stutter.
Read this one, then rush out to get the other two.
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Posted June 23, 2006
Mankind has spread across the galaxies and is divided into two different groups. The League is where the visionaries, who are constantly on the cutting edge of science, live. The Federation which is more conservative went to war against the League over biotech laboratory work. The less populated League created GI androids to augment their human soldiers.---------------- Cassandra ¿Sandy¿ Kresnov is a new prototype android GI. Over time she becomes sentient in a world that refuses to recognize her rights after the hostilities end. She leaves the League to reside on the Federation world of Calley where Sandy tries to act human, but is caught and jailed for her actions. However, when she saves the president¿s life that act insures she becomes a citizen and a soldier in the planet¿s war against adversaries who wants her back as a deadly machine.---------------- CROSSOVER is an amazing tale that focuses on what is sentient intelligence and how does that make one human. Readers will ponder whether an essence that can create, think and feel but was manufactured not born can be classified as having a spirit. Readers will adore Sandy who seems more human than many purebreds as she takes nothing for granted. Joel Shepherd following in the footsteps of Phillip K. Dick provides a penetrating science fiction tale in which Johnny Five is alive in space.-------------- Harriet Klausner
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I enjoyed this book mostly because of the "world building" that went into the context of the story. It takes place on a world I would like to visit if it were possible. The main character is an "android" of sorts and reminds me of the Bladerunner movie characters. The story also reminds me a bit of the Venus Prime stories from Arthur C. Clarke. The cover art is also well tuned to the feeling of the story.
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Posted September 20, 2006
I think the bold print on the back of the book says it best: MEET CASSANDRA KRESNOV. SOLDIER. LOVER. FIGHTER. PASSIONATE. COMPLETELY ARTIFICIAL. There's a lot to like in Joel Shepherd's debut novel. I'd say it's a cross between the television shows Alias and the new Battlestar Galactica, but that would be simplifying it a bit, despite the similar elements. This book is a political, science fictional thriller with a close examination on what truly makes a person human. And there's plenty of intricate setting detail, as well as a multi-ethnic cast that should intrigue anyone reading. One of the most appealing aspects to this book, for me personally, was the characterization of Cassandra Kresnov, Vanessa Rice, and the human relationships that played out, especially between these two women. Shepherd has a knack for capturing the human spirit-- there are pages when the naturalness of the dialogue just bleeds off the page. Shepherd also has a knack for humor and creating individual character voices. Cassandra is certainly sympathetic. Despite the fact she's synthetically made, and the most dangerous GI ever built (a hunter-killer model), this is a woman who is seeking what it means to live a normal life and to enjoy life's many pleasures. And even when her past catches up with her, and she's forced back into a role that she was created for, Cassandra remains the strongest and most sympathetic character in the book. Her story is definitely the most fascinating, her emotions the ones that grabbed me the most. In fact, I personally wish this book had been written solely from her point of view. But that would've been incredibly difficult due to the scope of the story and the fact that there are some scenes where her point of view wouldn't be reliable. There's also some interesting science fictional world- building to this. Example: Vanessa is a woman who alternates between a heterosexual cycle and a homosexual cycle every five years. That one detail is wonderfully intriguing and telling about the future in which these characters live. I also liked how, despite the advanced technology of this planet, that there are still 'holdovers,' like paperback books. I don't care about the logic of this, because Shepherd sets up political systems where, according to one ideology, history and culture is welcomed and not shunned in the face of increasingly advanced technology. I did have some stylistic issues with this, some of them being indicative of a debut writer: there's lots of telling, lots of info-dumping (though I really don't know how on earth you can convey so much info by showing, because that'd make the book twice as long), an excessive use of pronouns instead of names and an excessive use of fragments, the latter which I normally like but had a problem with here. Also, in the first chapter, we get the things that workshop-powers-that-be say writers should never do: open a story with someone waking up, and describing that individual via use of a mirror. Oops? Clearly, these aren't hard and fast rules, cause after all, plenty of writers do this and they, like Shepherd, are published. But the first chapter was a bit slow, and while it sets up the world and a nice contrast for what Cassandra is trying to do with her life, there could've been more exciting ways to start the piece. Oh well. Once you get past the first chapter, the book moves at a good pace, and I'll note that chapter two is not for the squeamish. :) So despite my stylistic issues, the book was a fun, easy read. Something I can definitely recommend to people (if you like fast-paced, complex politics and technologies with a human core for stories, you'll like this), and I look forward to reading the next book. This is a promising start to what could be a really fun series. And I think that now that Shepherd has his
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Overview
Crossover is the first novel in a series which follows the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov, an artificial person, or android, created by the League, one side of an interstellar war against the more powerful, conservative Federation. Cassandra is an experimental design — more intelligent, more creative, and far more dangerous than any that have preceded her. But with her intellect come questions, and a moral awakening. She deserts the League and heads incognito into the space of ...