Zare's Reviews > Going Dark
Going Dark (The Red, #3)
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by
Zare's review
bookshelves: to-read, action, adventure, military, military-fiction, military-sf, thriller, thrillers, dystopia, red-trilogy
Jun 04, 2024
bookshelves: to-read, action, adventure, military, military-fiction, military-sf, thriller, thrillers, dystopia, red-trilogy
Conclusion of the RED trilogy. I gotta admit ending is not what I expected but then again it is in line with - so to speak - reality of the situation (how one can defeat incorporeal and for all means and purposes omnipotent creature?).
After being saved in the aftermath of [for all means and purposes] suicide mission on the Dragons (Semak) satellite in Earth's orbit (end of book 2), Shelley finds himself now working for a deep black strike team (presumably one of many, but nobody knows for sure since they are all isolated from each other) that works directly following the RED's commands, and is named rather optimistically - Existential Threat Management (name itself does not guarantee long life span to its members, doesn't it?). These missions throw Shelly and his team across the world and very soon he starts noticing that at crucial decision making points both he and his team start to act in a weird way, taking risks that might not be most reasonable.... at any time.
And this is the crux of the novel for me - what started as an adventure with just goals (nuclear incident from the first book) ends up as series of fire fights for establishing supremacy of .... somebody/something. People die and everybody is aware that they are not exactly in control but they continue pushing on. So when Shelley starts to notice the patterns he gets involved in more and more deadly situations that it seems like somebody is just trying to get rid of him (very reminiscent of famous novel Armor).
Book is rather dystopian. When you read it, you can see some parallels with for example "Person of Interest" show. In both cases very powerful AIs are using their human operatives for stabilization purposes. But while POI AI aims to prevent wrongdoing, RED is not so humanistic. I have to admit author absolutely succeeds to show alien nature of AI. It is not human organism, it does not think in the same way nor does it have motives that one would expect from humans.
So, while book might seem as a series of battles, episodic in nature, it also shows how use of black operation operatives - where nobody can trust anyone, where some weird shady organizations lurk in the background and are marked as friendlies or hostiles according to some external ruling - is a very dangerous thing, used for instigating inter-state wars. Bug again what is the purpose for this and is it possible that all AIs showing up here are just heads of the same Hydra-like organism remains an open question. Ambiguity of all these activities still looks like lots of false flag operations to keep state governments shaken (especially after the clandestine decapitating strikes) to make sure everyone is in the open and under control. By the way, that constant mantra that everyone needs to be visible and made accountable is horror story in itself (and in making in our own times).
While ending is very realistic in my opinion (as realistic as it can get in work of fiction of course) some of the story arcs are left hanging (in lack of better word). For example entire story about the Mars colonists - I sort of a see where this was going but suddenly it just ended. Why? This had to be resolved in a much better way because at this point one has to wonder what was the purpose of Broken Sky and who incited it (again, lots of doubts and possible RED false flag operations).
As for supporting characters they are all great, from Kanoa to Abajian, Leonid being the show stealer especially in the last third of the book. Issam was a tragic figure, and while he seems to be author's means of hinting at ways humanity might fight the AI control I think he was little bit underused. He just popped up and very soon was gone. Not in a rushed way mind you but with him gone, question remains who was he actually working with.
So, lots of questions, and pretty open ending. I dont know if book 4 was in offering but I think it would be a good idea. Because of many open threads at the end I cannot give it full 5 stars.
Excellent thriller, maybe a slightly weaker than rest of the series, which in itself is truly great techno thriller series, with very believable characters and action.
Highly recommended, but do yourself a favor and start from the first book in the series.
After being saved in the aftermath of [for all means and purposes] suicide mission on the Dragons (Semak) satellite in Earth's orbit (end of book 2), Shelley finds himself now working for a deep black strike team (presumably one of many, but nobody knows for sure since they are all isolated from each other) that works directly following the RED's commands, and is named rather optimistically - Existential Threat Management (name itself does not guarantee long life span to its members, doesn't it?). These missions throw Shelly and his team across the world and very soon he starts noticing that at crucial decision making points both he and his team start to act in a weird way, taking risks that might not be most reasonable.... at any time.
And this is the crux of the novel for me - what started as an adventure with just goals (nuclear incident from the first book) ends up as series of fire fights for establishing supremacy of .... somebody/something. People die and everybody is aware that they are not exactly in control but they continue pushing on. So when Shelley starts to notice the patterns he gets involved in more and more deadly situations that it seems like somebody is just trying to get rid of him (very reminiscent of famous novel Armor).
Book is rather dystopian. When you read it, you can see some parallels with for example "Person of Interest" show. In both cases very powerful AIs are using their human operatives for stabilization purposes. But while POI AI aims to prevent wrongdoing, RED is not so humanistic. I have to admit author absolutely succeeds to show alien nature of AI. It is not human organism, it does not think in the same way nor does it have motives that one would expect from humans.
So, while book might seem as a series of battles, episodic in nature, it also shows how use of black operation operatives - where nobody can trust anyone, where some weird shady organizations lurk in the background and are marked as friendlies or hostiles according to some external ruling - is a very dangerous thing, used for instigating inter-state wars. Bug again what is the purpose for this and is it possible that all AIs showing up here are just heads of the same Hydra-like organism remains an open question. Ambiguity of all these activities still looks like lots of false flag operations to keep state governments shaken (especially after the clandestine decapitating strikes) to make sure everyone is in the open and under control. By the way, that constant mantra that everyone needs to be visible and made accountable is horror story in itself (and in making in our own times).
While ending is very realistic in my opinion (as realistic as it can get in work of fiction of course) some of the story arcs are left hanging (in lack of better word). For example entire story about the Mars colonists - I sort of a see where this was going but suddenly it just ended. Why? This had to be resolved in a much better way because at this point one has to wonder what was the purpose of Broken Sky and who incited it (again, lots of doubts and possible RED false flag operations).
As for supporting characters they are all great, from Kanoa to Abajian, Leonid being the show stealer especially in the last third of the book. Issam was a tragic figure, and while he seems to be author's means of hinting at ways humanity might fight the AI control I think he was little bit underused. He just popped up and very soon was gone. Not in a rushed way mind you but with him gone, question remains who was he actually working with.
So, lots of questions, and pretty open ending. I dont know if book 4 was in offering but I think it would be a good idea. Because of many open threads at the end I cannot give it full 5 stars.
Excellent thriller, maybe a slightly weaker than rest of the series, which in itself is truly great techno thriller series, with very believable characters and action.
Highly recommended, but do yourself a favor and start from the first book in the series.
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Reading Progress
September 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 26, 2021
– Shelved
May 26, 2024
–
Started Reading
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
action
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
adventure
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
military
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
military-fiction
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
military-sf
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
thriller
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
thrillers
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
dystopia
June 4, 2024
– Shelved as:
red-trilogy
June 4, 2024
–
Finished Reading