Book Review – Crossover
Author: Joel Shepherd
Cover Artist: Stephan Martiniere
Publisher: PYR
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: August 2006
The three Cassandra Kresnov books (Crossover, Breakaway, and Killswitch) have already seen print in Australia, but thanks to Pyr, a new science fiction and fantasy imprint from Prometheus Books, they are garnering new life in the United States.
Crossover introduces readers to Cassandra Kresnov, also nicknamed Sandy, who is an android, and one of the most deadly types—a GI, a literally killing machine. She, of course, appears to look nothing more than a regular human woman (except she’s quite attractive), but the truth is she is extremely strong, has accelerated reflexes, and is almost far too smart for her own good. She used to fight for the League, a rebellious faction of sorts that take their plight out against the Federation. I say “used to fight” for a reason; Cassandra began to have doubts about her actions, something those that created her never even expected an android to have the capability to do. But they made her too smart, too human. And she defected.
Cassandra takes refuge in Tanusha, a city resembling a mix of the new and the old, where she hopes to find a job, maybe a boyfriend, and a new way of life. A quiet life, one without all the killing and bloodshed and fear. Things seem to be looking up for her until a government agency moves in and kidnaps her, thoughts of immoral experiments at the forefront of their minds. Who will save her now?
Shepherd takes on, for a first novel, a number of interesting subjects. There’s political warfare, governmental corruption, and the ethics concerning the treatment of androids. As cliché as the notion of the League fighting the Federation (where has that shown up before?), the people fighting these struggles are so real that the reader can only believe what they are experiencing. Add the fact that Shepherd isn’t afraid to populate his cities with multiethnic characters and we have one very realistic world set in a future of flying cars, super dangerous GIs, and more.
While I felt that the story started out a little slow, once Cassandra gets kidnapped things really pick up. Despite a couple of issues I had with Shepherd’s writing style, the story flows from there on with little to no slowdown. The world in Crossover is futuristic, and yet, at the same time, a throwback to older days. From the cover alone I imagined a city similar to that found in Ghost in the Shell and I was not disappointed by what I experienced. Though both contain robotic folks and a high-speed world, Crossover is different enough to not be seen as a simple copy of something that’s already been done.
Some of the most fascinating scenes in Crossover are those without much “action”; Cassandra going over things in her head after being put back together from the dissection experiements performed by the government agency that kidnapped her, a courtroom drama where she lets her sarcasms spew out of her, the moment when she connects with characters and begins to form that clicky connection humans call friendship.
The prominent theme of Crossover is what makes a human, well, human, and what better way to explore this than through the mind of a lifelike android. It’s been explored countless times in myriad mediums. What makes Shepherd’s take different? His characters, especially Cassandra, they are what’s worth reading for. Check out Crossover; it’s a fun sci-fi thriller that is brimming with ideas and questions. Very enjoyable.
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