Book Review: Mind in the Clouds by Bruce M. Perrin

Title: Mind in the Clouds

Author: Bruce M. Perrin

Purchase: Amazon Link

Rating: /5

Synopsis:

"Recently graduated and newly hired Ruger-Phillips employee, Dr. Sam “Doc” Price is excited to be starting his new assignment. He will be assessing training developed for a team. It is, however, a team like no other, because only one of the team members is human; the other is one of the most intelligent and lethal systems ever built by man – the Joint Aerial Combat Capability or JACC. Loaded with the latest in detection and threat assessment technology, JACC is a silent, deadly hunter in the sky. Doc discovers, however, that JACC may not be the only killer on the remote, Nevada test range where he now finds himself. Soon, he is involved in a cat and mouse game with an unknown adversary. In this fight for his life and the lives of his friends, Doc asks himself, how do you match wits with the mind in the clouds, when you are not sure if you are facing the cold, exact logic of machine intelligence or the coldblooded urges of a human murderer?"

I found the idea of this book to be interesting.  It involved violence with a technology twist that made it unique to read.  However, I found it hard to get into because the writing was a bit choppy.  There were pages filled with chunks of dialogue that made the writing flat.  I wish there had been more descriptions and less dialogue, but that is just my opinion.  This would have made the writing more interesting to read.

Since the majority of this novel involved in depth technology discussion, I did learn a lot about these new concepts.  For example, drones played a large role in the story and I didn't know very much about them before.  Perrin is very knowledgeable about these forms of technology as well as psychology and the human mind, and that did show in his writing.  I could tell through his story that he was passionate about his work, but in the sections of the book where the writing fell flat I felt that he was waiting to get to a more interesting part of the novel.  There was just not enough time put into certain sections of the book.  I just think that if he went back through and added more descriptions and less dialogue, the novel would be stronger.  All this novel needs is for the dialogue and descriptions to be mixed instead of separated, and that would take this novel from good to great.

If you are a technology buff, this novel would be for you.  It is written for intellectual readers and those interested in more information than fiction.  This novel was good and I do recommend it to crime and technology buffs.