Kill Decision

Daniel Suarez

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

From the New York Times Bestselling author of Daemon comes a terrifying, breath-taking, and all-too-plausible vision of the world's near future.

Linda McKinney is a myrmecologist whose research focuses on African weaver ants -one of the most organized and aggressive species on earth. The chemical-based communication of weaver ants allows vast colonies to act as a single, collective intelligence, killing anything that enters their territory. What McKinney doesn't know is that her research has been stolen by unknown forces who have co-opted her software model to power an army of autonomous swarming drones - and recent attacks on the U.S. homeland indicate where that swarm might be released.

Saved from a drone attack herself by a secretive Special Ops soldier known as Odin, McKinney is suddenly propelled into a war she never dreamed existed. Together, McKinney and Odin must slow the spread of these swarming weapons long enough for the world to recognize their destructive power - and stay alive long enough to discover who is behind them.

McKinney knows the stakes go far beyond her own fate. For thousands of years the 'kill decision' in war has been in human hands, and offloading that responsibility to mass-produced, insect-like machines would bring unintended, possibly irreversible, consequences for us all.

A cutting-edge thriller with important contemporary relevance, Kill Decision is an adrenaline-filled page-turner that will shock readers with its realism and frightening plausibility.

Review by Nigel (300615) Rating (8/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 8/10
I enjoyed Daniel Suarez’s previous novels, Daemon and Freedom, immensely and feel that as time goes by some of the concepts in these novels are very prescient… feedback rules!

Kill Decision is Daniel Suarez’s third novel and as with Daemon and Freedom it is a high tech thriller that takes a look at our surveillance society and ponders some interesting concepts and questions.

Certain interested parties believe that soldiers and the chain of command should be taken out of the decision making process and that it is a good idea to have autonomous machines making the final kill decision on the battlefield… the fact that this puts ultimate power in the hands of a very few, without the nagging interference of a conscience, never crosses their minds [Sarcasm Flag].

To this end a shadowy cartel goes about assembling the software and hardware necessary to implement a swarm of autonomous drones to destabilise the power balance. So ensues a race against time to expose the real danger as rogue drones attack at the heart of America.

Kill Decision combines all the best bits of a Michael Crichton techno-thriller with the high octane action of a Matthew Reilly novel, all while remaining very plausible; an excellent mix.

I’m a great fan of the late Michael Crichton’s work and as far as I’m concerned I’ve found a worthy successor in Daniel Suarez.
Nigel (30th June 2015)