Andy McNab branches out into a new division of modern espionage thrillers with Shadow State. Nathan Pike is a witty and brilliant cryptography and cyberweapons specialist with a background in espionage who, after landing himself in a Cambodian prison, is approached by an enigmatic woman on behalf of a secretive benefactor with an offer that promises to challenge Pike’s skills like nothing before. Andy McNab keeps readers in the dark as the characters stumble across the globe from El Salvador to Athens and all the way to Dubai in an exotic story packed with twists and turns that confound and contribute to the overall mystery. Only, Nathan Pike isn’t one to be underestimated.
Shadow State is a hard-boiled caper that seals in the flavor of crime and danger in the modern age of cyberspace where anything and everything can be controlled using zeroes and ones, by those who know how to wield the unlimited power. While there’s still a healthy amount of old school subterfuge and thievery in the narrative that invokes a nostalgia of classics like Ocean’s Eleven, Andy McNab brilliantly injects the new threat of realistic cyberweapons such as Zero Day exploits all of which are explained in layman’s terms so that no reader feels out of sync with what’s going on in Nathan Pike’s head. If you’re a cyberspace geek, then it’s even more of a treat for you.
At the same time, the narrative never gets too convoluted for its own good and is very much driven by the protagonist, Nathan Pike. Andy McNab phenomenally sets up his new protagonist with emphatic insights into his foundations that help cement Pike as a full fledged character in our heads without compromising the velocity of the fast-paced storytelling. Pike is not an action-man. He can throw a punch and take one but his expertise lies in infiltrating technical systems, giving the narrative an extra touch of realism as Pike and his minders sneak into high security locations in sequences of intense nail-biting fervor.
Shadow State marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Andy McNab as he dabbles in the world of cryptography and cyberspace with the best attributes of a heat-seeking missile-paced thriller.
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