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In an effort to keep the edge in twenty-first century warfare
the United States has developed the Kestrel, a state of the
art unmanned plane, only problem is, someone has hacked into
its cybernetic brain and stolen it. Maya Rao, an old adversary
of Sydney Bristow's, approaches APO to help - not only to
get back the plane she stole but to rescue her fiancé, the
man who hacked into the plane. Sydney is assigned to work
with Maya, but she feels uneasy, both are professional, both
have killed, can Sydney really convince herself that they
are that much different or are they two of a kind...?
Written
by Greg Cox, Two of a Kind is another new novel based
on the television show Alias. Greg has many genre novels
to his name, mostly Star Trek and for a day job he
pulls in a gig as an editor. Where does the poor man find
the time to output so many novels.
For
those of you who have never watched the show Alias,
it's your basic counter espionage set-up, with the addition
that all the characters are either related to each other or
having some form of romantic relationship. Unfortunately this
usually leads to many of the Alias writers making dull
introspection into an art form. Thankfully, in the case of
Two of a Kind, this is kept to a minimum.
What
Greg Cox has produced here is a solid adventure that will
appeal to the fans of the show without alienating the casual
reader. One of the things I liked about the book was the sly
touches of wit which are dispersed throughout the narrative.
The scene set in the science fiction convention, where Sydney
is trying to track down Fujiwara, Maya's fiancé, shows an
understanding of fandom while at the same time refraining
from making the characters a source of unnecessary fun. Just
as well considering that many of the people who will buy this
book will take their fandom just as seriously.
Duality
and duplicity is the name of the game in this story. When
Sydney is forced to work with Maya to retrieve the stolen
plane she soon comes to realise that she is not so different
to her old adversary. With this troubling thought in mind
Sydney goes on a spiritual journey to discover if she has
a moral centre which justifies her actions as an agent.
Cox
uses every trick in the book to keep the reader guessing as
to Maya's motivation for approaching Sydney to save her fiancé
Fujiwara - especially as he was the computer hack whose skill
allowed Maya to steal the plane in the first place.
So,
a good solid book. Though I thought that the end part dragged
a little. This book is a fine read for Alias fans and
not so referential, to the show, as to put off the casual
reader.
Charles
Packer
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