Control Point

Shadow Ops

By: Myke Cole

Narrated by: Corey Jackson

Myke Cole is an expert at ratcheting up suspense and delivering pulse-pounding adventure that leaves audiences breathless. In Shadow Ops: Control Point, the world has seemingly gone mad. People are waking up with magical powers, such as the ability to raise the dead or call forth storms. The only thing staving off a plunge into chaos is the Supernatural Operations Corps, headed by Oscar Britton. But when Oscar exhibits a power of his own, the hunter becomes the hunted.

©2012 Myke Cole (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Cross The For­ever War with Witch­world, add in the real world mod­ern mil­i­tary of Black Hawk Down, and you get Control Point, the mile-a-minute story of some­one try­ing to find pur­pose in a war he never asked for." (Jack Camp­bell, New York Times Bestselling author of "The Lost Fleet" series)

Satire About the Contemporary Military Experience

I haven't finished the book. But, I want to speak against many of the negative reviews.

This is satire. So, when people liken the book to Haldeman's Forever War, they are really talking about the second half of that book.

The book really thinks about social equality and inequality, the use of contractors and indigenous people in American military expeditions, and the bureaucratic messes involved in that.

Further, the narrator is very expressive. However, he is African American and the viewpoint character is also African American. If you don't know that version of American English, then you might not appreciate his skill.

This is good science fiction in its political, fabulous, best.

Lots of potential

I think the story has a lot of potential, so I'm reading the next one.

This book should stay in the shadows

The narrator did a great job. Each character was distinct and even though the story line was weak the narrator kept my attention.

The main character (Oscar Brittain) was lame and just when you think he's going to become something he just screws up some more. Struggled to finish the book just hoping my time and money would be rewarded with a decent ending, but what a let down.

Interesting concept, dragged in the beginning

Would you consider the audio edition of Control Point to be better than the print version?

We all have our own minds set on what the characters would sound like and look like in real life, I think the narrator did an average job, with some characters not enough voice differential to tell where one character's speech ended and the other began.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Most interesting aspect of the story was the 'what if' factor, of how a world deals with true magic coexisting with every day regular joes. The least interesting part was the what I perceived to be the constant whining by the protagonist of the story, with too much character development for some, too little for others. That and the sudden appearance of 'the source' without any insight into how its existence was discovered, is it a parallel world, or planet in the far reaches of the galaxy? you never find out.

Which scene was your favorite?

The last chapters of the book things picked up the pace rapidly and actually kept me hooked to finish it, prior to that it was too much military posturing and planning to hold my interest for long duration so it took me longer than normal to complete this audio book

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Jack Ryan meets the world of Harry Potter

Zzzzzz..SNORT! Sorry, it's this snoozy audiobook!

What a letdown, too contrived, too much detail when not needed, and a sloppy storyline. Myke, you can do better. In fact, I'm hoping you do. See, this has potential. A LOT of potential. But somehow, this didn't hit the mark. I expected a different take on this genre', and somehow, you moved smoothly into the typical, mundane, and the predictable.

Myke, do us all a favor and do a rewrite. Do YOURSELF a favor, and write something else, ANYTHING else, as this should NOT be what you're known for in the audiobook industry. That would be a tragic shame.

Good listen.

"Great story!" slow start but worthwhile to listen to. I will buy the next book.

Annoying but worth it

This book is intense and has so much awesome, that it is hard to stop listening.

A Good Read

Any additional comments?

This story was a little bit new for me (as I am used to reading medieval fantasy) and at first I was a little apprehensive about picking it up. The idea of a military special forces squad filled with people who have magical abilities seemed to be a pretty cool premise to me but I wondered how it would fit in with many of the great fantasy books I’ve read. I am happy to report that it fits in remarkably well.

Oscar Britton is a sort of standard military man. He reflects many of the ideals of a stereotypical patriot and has a strong sense of conscience as he leads a team of special forces that take down magic users. The kicker that makes this story interesting is that Oscar wakes up one day only to find out he is latent with these magical abilities. Once he is captured by the team he once lead, he is given the choice to die or work for a secret operations base on another plane from Earth called the Source. Oscar, being the sort of guy who values living, accepts hoping to find some sort of comfort and purpose in this new position. What he finds is that working under the government’s thumb isn’t freedom at all.

The story takes off from here as Oscar again is leading a team of soldiers, this one filled with latents like he, and is sent on several ops that test his abilities and his conscience. I won’t give away any of the surprises that lurk here but what I will say is this story is filled with many twists and turns that kept those pages turning for me. Just when you think things can’t get any worse for our hero, it does. What results is a really compelling story that should be an easy read for any fantasy reader.

As far as writing goes this story is told well. Myke Cole balances the plot with Oscar’s conscience and makes several interesting theories on how people would perform in a world where people wake up with magical abilities that were never before thought possible. Reading this alternate world and the way people react to it was interesting and got me thinking about how I would react in similar circumstances. Myke doesn’t choke the reader with his own ideology of how America likes to run business, but he does bring several valid points into play as the story progresses leaving a very well thought view of how this alternate world would work realistically.

On top of the story and writing I also have to applaud the accuracy of the military descriptions. Some authors try to write about something they don’t know much about or haven’t researched well but this isn’t the case with Myke Cole. Myke has obvious military experience and the story really benefits from a point of view that understands the inter-workings of the government and military as a whole. I enjoyed reading this novel because of this and I felt it added deeply to my experience that the author really knew what he was talking about with the non-fictional stuff and worked it in wonderfully with the fictional aspects.

Overall I think this novel would be worth a read for any number of fantasy fans and even military fiction readers as well. The story is well realized and the author has a very vivid imagination. As I said before I was a little apprehensive about picking this novel up but I was not disappointed. I have really enjoyed by time with Oscar Britton and I hope to revisit him soon in the sequel.

My Rating: 8/10

Excellent!

Any additional comments?

Loved it! I hope the entire series ends up on audible! Myke Cole is, hands down, one of the best and engaging writers ever!

Myke Cole is a God.

No other words are really necessary, but Audible is insisting. So yeah. Awkward extra words.