Mark Greaney goes full technothriller in his latest Gray Man blockbuster, which sees Court Gentry and Zoya Zakharova confronting a rogue artificial intelligence in control of a battalion of weapon-wielding cyborg dogs and bomb-wielding drones.
Various factions want to control this AI, the Chinese and Americans principal among them, but Gentry is sure of only one thing—it needs to die. Along the way Greaney renders typically resplendent action scenes, and constructs a neat mystery surrounding the murders of various high-ranking AI and robotics professionals around the world. Certainly, “The Chaos Agent” is mostly about the sound and the fury, but these books never disintegrate into preposterous hash. They’re a fine example of the genre done just right.
Warfare is evolving alongside advances in technology. I understand we’re headed down a terrifying path towards weaponised autonomous robots, despite various 80s movies warning us about the repercussions. Hello, Terminator, anyone? But this one just leans a little too heavily into the near future. It feels a little too science fiction. Thankfully “The Chaos Agent” ends on a cliff-hanger, which has me very excited for the Gray Man’s next instalment.
Written By Sime 