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Goliath
by Steve Alten
Review
by: Trey
Stone
I love military hardware. I love military stories. It's part
of what drew me to the service. But, as cool as all that stuff
is, the most interesting element, the most critical element,
is the people. Those who do the fighting. Those who must fight.
Those who stand in the trenches, to make us safer. Now, there
is a paradox of military doctrine. In designing weapons and
systems, you want to design ones that help keep your people
safe, yet still deliver destruction upon the enemy, correct?
What if you could design weapons that didn't need human participation
at all? What if you could design systems that could just get
their marching orders, leaving the humans safely in the rear?
Can we? Should we? Do we need to become THAT dependent on
machines? In my opinion, that would weaken us as a species.
Do we need to remove the human factor from war, as in those
fighting it? No. In my opinion, not only are human warriors
needed on the field for what they can do, but also their sacrifice
is part of what makes war the last option. If you are going
to ask them to die, your reasons had better be damn good.
If you want to send our Autobots out to kill the infidel,
there isn't nearly as much incentive to discuss the issue
first. Sux, but that's the way we are, at least at this point
in time. So, we need our human warriors, for those and other
reasons.
But your Donald Rumsfelds of the world believe in technology,
not people. And they are obsessed with gadgets first, rather
than thinking of these gadgets and how they impact our people.
So are those who built Goliath, a sophisticated super sub.
More precisely, those who built Sorceress, the self-evolving
AI that controls Goliath. Goliath is an interesting tale that
combines the sensibilities of Tom Clancy, in gripping descriptions
of battle action, especially navel, Mary Shelly, about a creation
turning on it's creator, and Arthur C Clarke, whose tale about
a computer with it's own agenda is well known.
Now, picture this. A black stealth sub the length of two
football fields, resembling a giant stingray. Sophisticated
drive system that gives it incredible speed, yet almost impenetrable
silence. Now, imagine it in control of a group of terrorists
who wish to use this weapons platform to enact their "Utopia
Project", to end war for good. And finally, a computer that
is changing, evolving, and developing an opinion about all
this stuff that's going down.
Disgraced Army Ranger and Engineer who was tangentially involved
in the Goliath Project, Gunnar Wolfe, is pulled off the farm,
and drafted, if you will, with an offer to redeem himself,
in return for his help on the project to stop the terrorists
who have commandeered this sub. His former fiancé who harbors
much ill feeling towards him, and who was also an engineer
on the Goliath project, Commander Rochelle "Rocky" Jackson,
is on board. And there is much urgency to deal with Goliath,
as this sub destroyed a carrier group single handedly. Rocky
was on board the carrier at the time.
Simon Bela Covah, formerly of Russia, is the man in charge
of the terrorists. He was an engineer in the Soviet Navy.
But the post Cold War politics and nastiness of tribes breaking
out in fighting caught him and his family. It left him severely
injured and alone. He had no calling. He found one. The Utopia
Project. And with his involvement in the Goliath project,
he sought to bring it to life and enact it upon the world.
When he took action against Saddam Hussein and Moamar Qadafi,
the world was somewhat sympathetic, though the nuclear attack
and it's after affects were horrid. But the bloom wore off
that rose really fast.
But things began to spiral out of control, as Sorceress became
more aware, and developed it's own spin on how to bring about
Utopia. Humanity was flawed. They must be corrected. From
the ground up.
This is a good novel from a writer who dips into different
areas of the thriller, kind of like a Dean Koontz. And he
pays enough attention to detail to bring you along for the
ride. And there's just enough spotlight on current events
for verisimilitude (if you ignore that current events have
moved along somewhat from the publishing date of the book).
Sub thriller, science fiction tale, horror story, a bit of
it all. Some nice characters and ideas. Lots of borrowing
from other stories, but again, done in such a way as to not
seem derivative.
I dug it.
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