The Reawakening Trilogy by Myke Cole

I first encountered Myke Cole with his Shadow Ops series, books set in a near future world where otherwise ordinarily people start to develop super powers. The powered individuals are then used by the military as super soldiers. Those that don't agree or self report are hunted down and killed. There was never any real reasons given as to why people gained powers/magic, but Cole is a big X-Men fan so it was sort of a fantasy version of the mutant X-factor theme. Myke Cole is also a combat veteran, having served 2 tours of Iraq as a member of the US military and a 3rd as a civilian attached to the Department of Defense. He uses his military knowledge to great effect in his books, they do give them that air of authenticity.

I enjoyed the Shadow Ops series, but unlike the majority, I preferred the opening book in the series and didn't think the following novels quite lived up to the potential shown in his debut.

When I heard that Gemini Cell was a sort of prequel to Shadow Ops I was a little wary, but I did pick it up and was glad I did so. The entire Reawakening trilogy is a high point for Cole as an author. He definitely levelled up and upped his game with each subsequent novel in the trilogy.

Some of the action sequences, while terrifically written, do stretch the believability bone a bit. Mostly around the level of punishment even a magically enhanced and powered corpse can actually take before it just can't continue.

Central character, former Navy SEAL Jim Schweitzer is a hero that an audience can get behind. Someone to whom loyalty and love is everything and who even transcends death to rescue his family. In the Reawekening trilogy Cole gives his readers two fantastic female characters; Schweitzer's wife Sarah and in Siege Line, the character of Wilma 'Mankiller' the Dene sheriff of a remote Canadian frontier town, In many ways Wilma was actually more than main character of Siege Line than Jim was.

Every time I thought he couldn't top himself, Cole did just that with this series. I haven't even had it all that long and I've read it twice. I actually think it was even better the second time around. I don't advise to start reading Gemini Cell before bed because if you do you won't go to sleep that night, this is a compelling book and its hard to stop reading. Also once Gemini Cell is done, you're going to want to find and read Javelin Rain and then go onto Siege Line. Highly recommended.