Pimpage: 'Control Point' by Myke Cole

Written by ChrisW January 06, 2012 767 0Add

Myke Cole and his début urban fantasy novel 'Shadow Ops: Control Point' has been popping up on all the fantasy social media feeds I follow, as well as getting a fair bit of pimpage from Peter V Brett, so I thought I'd take a looksee.

Army Officer. Fugitive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set everything they touch ablaze.

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps, his mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly manifests a rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him overnight from government agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of situation: hunt him down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known, and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for.

Hrmmm not sold yet. Lets see what the peeps have been saying.

Staffer's Musings

It's not a great novel; it lacks the artistic flair of something by K.J. Parker or the deep emotional resonance of something likeThe Tiger's Wife (Obreht). It is, however, a very good one that tells a compelling story connected to well conceived world building and substantial undercurrents.

Jim C Hines

Actually, “conflicted” is a good word for the book as a whole. Nothing is simple; there are no straightforward right or wrong answers. Cole does a good job of presenting the messiness of a world where a teenager could wake up one day with the power to massacre an police force, and the costs of trying to protect people in such a world.

Fantasy Faction

Realism is tightly interwoven through out Cole’s writing, giving the book such power. This isn’t a book of black and white heroes, it’s the real world where everyone lives in shades of grey, where being right just depends on what side of the fence you are sitting on.

Ranting Dragon

Control Point is an intense masterwork of military fantasy that grips you from start to finish until your eyes practically devour the words as you approach the thrilling ending.

Civilian Reader

A novel not to be missed if you like magic, Urban Fantasy, action, and military fiction. There’s a lot on offer here, and it should appeal to a great swathe of genre fans.

Seems to be doing well in the review department and my interest is sparked, so I'll add this one to my "Books to try if I ever get into Urban Fantasy in a big way" list.

No sample chapters yet that I could find but he does have a flash website and he's got the author photo pose down pat. Release date is January 31st.

Comments

0 # Elfy 2012-01-09 00:42

Jim Hines' review kind of made it sound like the literary equivalent of a big dumb action film, and I like those, so I'll probably give this a whirl. It also seems to have shades of Larry Correia's Monster Hunters Inc books.

Pimpage: 'Control Point' by Myke Cole

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