Chafe, Paul C.
MISSION CRITICAL: DEATH OF THE PHOENIX
Paul C. Chafe
TOR 1996
Pb 257 pgs
ISBN#
0-7615-0234-3
Are you looking for a fast read? One that will hold you in your seat until
you've forgotten that the rest of life exists? Hmmm, this might be just what you
are looking for. It certainly had me up late reading, and it gave me goose-bumps
too!
Hero Lewis Tyrell is commander of a Pathfinder platoon for the United Nations,
"the elite of the elite," in the year 2134. So far in this war against the
Alliance, the U.N. has been winning; but that is until Alliance scientists
developed a dangerous new drug, "code named Hype." Once the source of this drug
has been discovered, Lewis' team is ordered in under cover, to "Penetrate the
facility, acquire as much information as possible, including above all else a
sample of the drug, then destroy the facility and the scientists who ran it, and
get out." They of course run into trouble. Many team members are killed. Lewis
is injured and captured. He manages to escape, but while wandering the desert
the war comes to an end. His side has lost. He has no one to report to that he
really did come out of that facility with a sample of Hype. Several years later,
what is left of his team meets for a party. Lewis shows them the vial of Hype.
And very soon after he is taken prisoner again. One of his men betrayed him.
Lewis had not dreamed what importance this drug held. His history is erased and
he is quickly transported to Mare Stellatis: "Once a lunar observatory, then an
Alliance military base, it became a Corrective Services rehabilitation center
whose isolation-space was the far side of the moon." And, "No one who went in
ever came out." Oh yes, this story is very suspenseful.
So, you are wondering, "What is Hype?" Ooooo, listen to this quote from the
book: "Morrow paused, reflecting. ' Well, it hardly matters now, does it Mr.
Tyrell?' He gave a paternal smile with the warmth of a cobra and Tyrell's skin
crawled. ' Let me tell you about Hype. It is not just a drug; it is a series of
molecular machines. Once injected, the machines bind to specific neural paths in
the brain. They construct conductive protein fibers from those paths to a common
access point in the occipital lobe. We can then connect those fibers to an
external computer. Hype is the ultimate man-machine interface.'" --and of
course, the reader gets to experience this first hand!
The prose in MISSION CRITICAL is clean, the action is well choreographed, the
plot-line is plausible, and the characterization is full enough that the reader
can fit right into the story with him. And the science--it's convincing without
being overwhelming or dry. So, score a 10 out of 10 for this book.
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