Ghost Cell: An Ander Rade Novel, by Zac Topping, is an entertaining near-future quasi-military science fiction novel. Being published on July 15, it’s a sequel to Rogue Sequence (2023), but I didn’t have any trouble diving in and enjoying this ride without having read the first book.
Topping provides plenty of backstory to explain the world of Ander Rade and the motivations that drive him. It’s a near future with no space travel that’s mentioned, but it has modified human warriors (soldiers, mercenaries, police, etc.) who are being replaced by contracts for synthetics manufactured by the Tryvern Corp. The American government is now the United American Provinces instead of the United States (or maybe this is a secondary world that evolved differently, but it still has cities like Miami and Los Angeles, and Russians and other fairly familiar polities).
Rade had become a super-soldier for Xyphos Industries years ago but was cut off after the World Unity Council banned genetic modifications and deemed his kind a danger to humanity, so he’s been living a tenuous existence off the books as politicians argue over solutions. When the Genetic Compliance Department offers him a full pardon if he infiltrates a secret organization of rogue mods, he has just one condition: a similar pardon for his former commander, Sevrina Fox.
There is plenty of pulse-pounding action in this book, from hand-to-hand combat to running battles including drones, hybrid watch-animals, mechas, and both normal humans and other super-soldiers; the fights are vivid and feel grounded despite technological advances, so it’s no surprise at all to learn that Topping is an Army veteran who served in Iraq.
There’s more to the book than that, though. Rade has some troubling side effects from his modifications — when everything is working right, he feels pleasure instead of pain when he’s injured, and the endorphins help him fight better and longer, but his body is degenerating and he’s subject to bouts of incapacitating headaches and worse (the need for constant maintenance and upgrades would be a good way for a corporation to keep a super-soldier under control, but he doesn’t appear to make that connection, thinking it’s an innate problem with the tech).
Moreover, Rade faces moral challenges when he ponders whether he’s working for the right side or betraying fellow modified humans (eventually there’s a clear signal on that front), and when he sees innocent bystanders endangered on missions. In addition, Rade acquires some unexpected allies, and experiences some deepening feelings for a colleague.
Ghost Cell is a fun popcorn read (as long as you’re okay with violence). The main character is reasonably empathetic and engaging, other characters and their dialogues are solid, the worldbuilding hangs together without dragging the plot down, and the action moves rapidly without getting confusing. I enjoyed it, and any reader who’s in the mood for this sort of book probably will too.
Content warnings: Graphic violence, killings and outright murders, merciless mercenaries, rioting, mild body horror, illness/addiction, dystopian future.
Comps: The Mercenary Librarians series by Kit Rocha, starting with Deal with the Devil (but less romance/sex than in that trilogy); A Catskill Eagle by Robert B. Parker.
Disclaimer: I received a free eARC for review from the publisher via NetGalley.
