Publishing information: Kindle
Publisher: Spectra 20 May 2008
ISBN 10: 0553385410
ISBN 13: 978-0553385410
ASIN: B0015DRP4A
Series: Book one in the Autumn Rain trilogy
Copy: Out of Pocket
Reviewer: Tyson
Description "In the 22nd century, the first wonder of a brave new world is the Phoenix Space Elevator, designed to give mankind greater access to the frontier beyond Earth. Cooperatively built by the United States and the Eurasian Coalition, the Elevator is also a grand symbol of superpower alliance following a second cold war. And it's just been destroyed. With suspicions rampant, armies and espionage teams are mobilized across the globe and beyond. Enter Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, U.S. counterintelligence agents and former lovers-though their memories may only be constructs implanted by their spymaster. Now their agenda is to trust no one. For as the crisis mounts, the lives of all involved will converge in one explosive finale-and a startling aftermath that will rewrite everything they've ever known-about their mission, their world, and themselves."
The Mirrored Heaven is an interesting future for Earth. Russia and China have formed an alliance as has the United States and her allies. The rest of the world has been chopped up and divvied up between the two. South America is proving to be difficult to contain as they have many splinter groups doing their best to remain free from the oppression of the two major super powers. The two super powers have formed an uneasy alliance with the creation of the space elevator. Doesn't sound too far fetched for the next century. That is why I think this book is interesting.
Admittedly, I was at a loss in the beginning as things move at light speed and the characters and events come and go quickly within the first 100 pages or so. however, once the main event occurs then things start to have some light shed on them. Basically most secret operatives work in pairs. One shooter and one person working support. I found I really enjoyed reading about the shooters. The action was fast and furious and some of their abilities were astounding. The support personnel were interesting as well but not quite as much as I think that Williams wanted me to believe. There is a lot of hacking in The Mirrored Heavens, hacking for information, hacking to circumvent security systems and to gain access to locations. The Mirrored Heavens focus on this on many occasions and at times it was tense but after a fashion, I stopped being excited with the whole process. There is a love interest between a shooter and his hacker but, it is mainly a plot point and a point of mystery as to whether they truly love one another or it was all downloaded into their brains to make them more effective on the battlefield and also cause doubt and trust issues in times of crisis. It was interesting and fun to watch as the mystery unravelled but it could have also been avoided altogether and the book would have came to the same conclusion, minus a few points of tension.
The world building is interesting and I suppose it is plausible as well. There are portions of the book that describe the history of earth and how we got to the point where the book takes place and it is interesting. However, with all of the advancements that we made, I found it interesting that South America was never brought into the fold and treated so harshly and without any care. Of course you have to have someone to be the scapegoat and they cannot always be the Russians or the Chinese so, why not the South Americans. It is an exotic locale.
Due to the fact that The Mirrored Heavens gets off to a chaotic and shaky start it takes some time to get on the same page as the author, but once you do it is a fun ride. Lots of action and things exploding and at times if feels more like a action movie than a novel, it is a decent read. It is not a great read however. This is the debut from a promising author and when time permits I do plan to return to the trilogy and see how things come to an end. I hear the third book is very good and was the reason I picked up the first volume in the first place.
Plot 6
Characters 7
Style 6
Overall 6.5/10
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