What happens when you take an outdated nuclear waste storage facility being inappropriately repurposed, becoming the credible threat to the country that the people secretly using this facility were hoping to avoid? Then mix in the intractable nature of bureaucratic tunnel vision and hubris borne of the expected privileges of political ambitions and agendas?
You end up with a technology-driven run-for-your-life thriller where anything that could possibly happen does. Basically what the Hollywood elevator pitch for “Die Hard in a secret underground government facility” might be.
This story is a fun ride, in that mindless popcorn fest action movie way, where each event cranks up the tension one more notch, either by encountering unexpected hurdles or underestimating poor behavior within the group.
The interpersonal conflicts between several of the main characters, both professional and political, are a credible source of conflict, but maybe leaned on a little too often, and in several instances maybe in a bit too heavy-handed ways. The characters may also be a bit too easily placed on the chessboard; it gets a little too easy to discern who we are supposed to root for and who we’re supposed to despise.
Are some of the incidents that throw more roadblocks in the path of our protagonists a little too conveniently timed? Sure. Is that a bad thing? Not at all! The relentless nature and the timing of the ups and downs of the roller coaster fits the pacing of the story, and I could see this story working as a modest budget B-movie action-thriller.
The fast pacing and the plausible predictability of some of the events might not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you enjoy the literary version of a popcorn action movie, this one could be for you.
Deep within a mountain in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Cold War-era nuclear weapons storage facility is being used to covertly receive more than 100,000 tons of nuclear waste stored across the US. Only Department of Energy employee, Adonia, and a few others including a war hero, a senator, and an environmental activist, are allowed access to perform a high-level security review of the facilities. But Hydra Mountain was never meant to securely hold this much hazardous waste, and it has the potential to explode, taking with it all of Albuquerque and spreading radioactivity across the nation.
This disaster situation proves all too possible when a small plane crashes at a nearby military base, setting off Hydra’s lockdown and trapping Adonia and her team in the heart of the hazardous, waste-filled mountain. Now, the only direction for them to go is deeper into the mountain, through the tear gas and into a secretive area no one was ever supposed to know about.
Kill Zone: A High-Tech Thriller by Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Forge Books (August 27, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250183448
ISBN-13: 978-1250183446
Author
"Kill Zone" by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason
Summary
What happens when you take an outdated nuclear waste storage facility being inappropriately repurposed, becoming the credible threat to the country that the people secretly using this facility were hoping to avoid? Then mix in the intractable nature of bureaucratic tunnel vision and hubris borne of the expected privileges of political ambitions and agendas?
You end up with a technology-driven run-for-your-life thriller where anything that could possibly happen does. Basically what the Hollywood elevator pitch for “Die Hard in a secret underground government facility” might be.
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