Gemini Cell by Myke Cole ( Shadow Ops)
US Navy SEAL Jim Schweitzer is a consummate professional, a fierce warrior, and a hard man to kill. But when he sees something he was never meant to see on a covert mission gone bad, he finds himself—and his family—in the crosshairs. Nothing means more to Jim than protecting his loved ones, but when the enemy brings the battle to his front door, he is overwhelmed and taken down. That should be the end of the story. But Jim is raised from the dead by a sorcerer and recruited by a top secret unit dabbling in the occult, known only as the Gemini Cell. With powers he doesn’t understand, Jim is called back to duty—as the ultimate warrior. As he wrestles with a literal inner demon, Jim realizes his new superiors are determined to use him for their own ends and keep him in the dark—especially about the fates of his wife and son…
This is my first foray into the world the Myke Cole has created and despite being effectively the fourth book in the series, it serves as an excellent jumping off point for those late to the game.
In this book we see the ultimate golden boy hero get his head blown off and turned into something different. Jim’s body is reanimated and merged with the spirit of an ancient warrior of such strength and power that his soul has survived and his abilities have become close to god like. So we have the devastating willpower, controlled discipline and completely unimpeachable integrity of our protagonist combined with a fucking attack dog that knows nothing of modern technology but can literally change the body he is in to turn into a weapon. It is an interesting battle between the two and serves as much of the basis of the dialogue. The perspective is an interesting one as we also get to see those around him witness it for the first time with an excited scientist babble the is reminiscent of every stupid scientist that has ever come too close to his creation. Like the guy in Deep Blue See who gets arm bitten off by giant super intelligent shark, the idiots in Alien 4 the try to train the soldiers with liquid nitrogen and Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man you know they have it coming and you cant wait to see one get squished.
The blurb above nicely sums up the narrative and my only criticism would be is that I feel I have been here before in terms of the revenge tale structure as it certainly has hints of Darkman and Robocop and few others. That being said, it was written as an introduction to an already well-developed world though so there are many people who have read the first three books that love the characters and the world who wanted to know how it all began and I believe this book is for them.
There is a ton to enjoy throughout, particularly the high-octane action scenes and the overall coolness of Jim Schwietzer and his ability to perform under pressure. Alony with the violence that is at times bloody and gruesome there is quite at of humour, both dark and light, which I found surprising and fun. I loved a small scene where our internal demon showed himself standing out in front of an army shouting and daring the enemy to come at him while Jim’s response wass to show him a soldier lining him up with a sniper rifle and simply blowing his head off. It brings a quick realisation to this other world power that this human dead shot might not be as useless as he assumed.
There are a few twists and turns in the plot that really threw me for a loop and the side characters of Sarah and Steven get a nice arc that adds depth and contrast to the story in comparison to the events being dealt with by our protagonist. I’d have liked a better wrap up but hey that’s why there are sequals.
I’m going to go and read Control Point and start from there and might well find myself meandering back this way when I am done with those ones.
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my review.
