Joel Shepherd, Breakaway

Breakaway

PYR, April 2007, $15.00, 568 pp.

ISBN: 1591025400

Cassandra "Sandy" Kresnov is a G.I., a synthetic as opposed to organic, person created in the League's laboratories. She has intelligence and morality and she defected from the League to the Federation because she felt that she would be treated as a person on the planet Callay. After saving the president from an assassin, she has been awarded citizenship, which angers some politicians and people who see her as the killer that was part of the League's army.

Sandy works black ops for the CSA but is technically attached to a S.W.A.T. team under the auspices of her best friend Vanessa. Trouble is brewing on Callay as article 42, a provision to be voted on to succeed from the Federation, is up for referendum. If approved, the heads of corporations believe this will allow them to use biotech, the science that created Sandy. The SIB harasses Sandy, causing her to lose her job and citizenship because they believe she is a killing machine. Still, Sandy does her best to do her job even as the upcoming vote on article 42 leaves her in a void status while even something more radical is percolating.

It is ironic that the heroine feels more at home in the Federation where the science that created her is outlawed. Readers who have read CROSSOVER, the first CASSANDRA Kresnov novel, will find BREAKAWAY is just as good. The tale contains great characterizations, especially the heroine, a cultural look at an advanced civilization, and plenty of political intrigue. All this contributes to make Breakaway a one-sitting reading experience.

Harriet Klausner