author : Joel Shepherd

Cassandra Kresnov is a synthetic person, a super-soldier, templated from a human, but brainwashed and moulded to fight in the war for the League against the Federation. But she is a special model, more intelligent, more creative, than the regulars. She comes to realise that as the war finishes, the League will have no use for her kind. When her whole team is wiped out in an "incident", she goes AWOL, and moves to the Federation, in search of a new life. She just wants to be an ordinary human civilian, but her past soon catches up with her.

This is a fun romp of slam-bam action, tricksy multi-sided politics, debates about what it means to be human, and loving lingering descriptions of a huge city. Sandy is on one hand a superior being, being ultra strong, ultra fast, and highly intelligent. On the other hand, she is very young, only 14 years have passed since she was created, and most of that time has been spent at war. It's interesting to watch her grow, to see her coming to terms with her differences, and to see the reactions of the ordinary humans she has to work with. And there's lots of descriptions of the huge city.

Cassandra Kresnov, synthetic person, super-soldier on the run from the League who made her, has found a place in the Federation, as part of Callay's CSA's elite SWAT team. But not everyone in the Federation is pleased at her presence, or even existence, and the conspiracy she helped uncover in Crossover has opened the flood gates to politicking, rioting, terrorism, and other manoeuvrings of desperate factions. So, just another day in the life of the super-city Tanusha.

Another fun romp, as Cassandra continues her discovery of who she is, and of how a soldier needs to learn to navigate the tricky politics of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-dingbat society. There's still the love-affair with the megopolis of Tanusha, and I'm beginning to feel the need for some wilderness.

There is closure at the end of the book, but it has the clear feel of being the "middle of a trilogy": after the scene setting of the first, the second lays the groundwork for the final denouement. Good groundwork, and I'm looking forward to the finale.

It's now two years after the events in Breakaway. Talks are still going on about relocating the Federation HQ, and some don't like the fact it will be leaving Earth. In particular, the Federation Fifth Fleet is full of reactionaries, and they have put themselves in Callay orbit, threatening a blockade. Synthetic person Commander Cassandra Kresnov is now out in the open, and second in command of the expanded Callay Defence Force. But secret intelligence, and attempts on her life, reveal that she has a "killswitch" embedded in her brainstem. She must go undercover to avoid destruction, and to discover the traitor in the Callay government hierarchy.

Yet more great slam-bam action, in a complex political scenario with many different factions and fluid alliances. Sandy is now recognised by the average Callayan-in-the-street, so going undercover is no easy task. Also her relationship with her ex-GI colleague Chu is well developed to show the problems even fully integrated GIs still have. There is closure to the trilogy, but with enough ongoing threads that you can guess Sandy will still be having problems and adventures for the foreseeable future.