Second book in a series starts with a very interesting, albeit highly confusing military trial of our hero Lt Shelley and his team. Following their actions against the industry giant [intent of destroying the mysterious Red even if it means detonating the nuclear weapons on US territory] Shelley's team is charged with working with outside national force to penalize US citizen.

While public opinion is very much leaning towards Shelley's team, mysterious forces, both antagonistic and supportive of our heroes, start to approach and execute their own plans. While Shelley will try to stay out of the obvious conflict between Red and the Dragons (long living, almost immortal corporate leaders) he will find himself sucked into conflicts with various factions, shadow military outfits, paramilitaries bent on controlling the Red and finally outfit that seems to be directly at Red's service.

Author's style is truly beautiful and - as story progresses and our heroes are bounced around the urban areas hit by bomb attacks, rural areas under constant buzz of drones and automated weapons hunting for them to final battle that will leave Shelley at the mercy of of the nature - Nagata manages to give us various entanglements between the members of the team, their fears, their sorrow when teammates are harmed or even killed, constant attempts to finding the meaning for themselves in the new world outside the military that discharged them from service after the trials.

There is not a boring moment in the book, and this includes love scenes and flirts between team-members, that I usually find very boring and nothing but page filler.

Action scenes are wonderfully written, everyone is fair game, everyone can be hurt and even killed (that boarding operation on the cargo ship was breath taking, and action on the Dragon owned Earth orbiting satellite-habitat was so reminiscent of Neuromancer it got me giggling with joy :)) so you are glued to the very last page to see how it will end.

If you like stories like that of TV show Person of Interest - this is the book for you.

Highly recommended to fans of SF, action, and political thrillers. Onto the last book in the series :) ( )

entertaining and engaging but didn't work quite as week as the first book. Maybe suffers a little because it is the second in a trilogy. looking forward to book 3 ( )

Thoroughly enjoyable, and more proof that marketing really does run the world... I don't know what the current plans are but the ending has promise that this could be an ongoing series, which would be aces with me. ( )

Decently crafted techo-thriller continuing the greater story introduced from [b:The Red: First Light|17605440|The Red First Light|Linda Nagata|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363059827s/17605440.jpg|24561453], opening with a trial and then proceeding to quite a few trials, some literal, some not literal at all.

It stays light even with the more serious themes, dangerous situations, and mass death, but that's only because the really big destructions happen elsewhere. If you love a bit of gratuitous violence, a lot of cool tech and toys, an awesome ghost in the machine, and a bit more gratuitous political comeuppance all wrapped up into a delightfully straightforward try/fail story structure, then I'm sure you'll love this. :)

It's all action and an easy read with solid characters. :) What more are you looking for? A deep message? ( )

This is the second volume of Red trilogy. While I was extremely satisfied with the first volume, the continuation was much weaker. The first volume introduced a wealth of ideas, from exoskeleton-using solders to AI, which plays against ‘military-industrial complex’. The second just continues from what the first one introduced but neither introduces notable new twists nor new points of view on the situation. Maybe this is the foundation for the third volume, but per se this book looks like cashing off the success of the first volume. ( )