This was a pleasant surprise for me. I've never read Zac Topping before and he'll now be added to my auto buy. Though some parts were a little slow for me, this was a great suspenseful read.

Ghost Cell: An Ander Rade Novel, by Zac Topping, is an entertaining near-future quasi-military science fiction novel. Being published on July 15, it’s a sequel to Rogue Sequence (2023), but I didn’t have any trouble diving in and enjoying this ride without having read the first book.

Topping provides plenty of backstory to explain the world of Ander Rade and the motivations that drive him. It’s a near future with no space travel that’s mentioned, but it has modified human warriors (soldiers, mercenaries, police, etc.) who are being replaced by contracts for synthetics manufactured by the Tryvern Corp. The American government is now the United American Provinces instead of the United States (or maybe this is a secondary world that evolved differently, but it still has cities like Miami and Los Angeles, and Russians and other fairly familiar polities).

Rade had become a super-soldier for Xyphos Industries years ago but was cut off after the World Unity Council banned genetic modifications and deemed his kind a danger to humanity, so he’s been living a tenuous existence off the books as politicians argue over solutions. When the Genetic Compliance Department offers him a full pardon if he infiltrates a secret organization of rogue mods, he has just one condition: a similar pardon for his former commander, Sevrina Fox.

There is plenty of pulse-pounding action in this book, from hand-to-hand combat to running battles including drones, hybrid watch-animals, mechas, and both normal humans and other super-soldiers; the fights are vivid and feel grounded despite technological advances, so it’s no surprise at all to learn that Topping is an Army veteran who served in Iraq.

There’s more to the book than that, though. Rade has some troubling side effects from his modifications — when everything is working right, he feels pleasure instead of pain when he’s injured, and the endorphins help him fight better and longer, but his body is degenerating and he’s subject to bouts of incapacitating headaches and worse (the need for constant maintenance and upgrades would be a good way for a corporation to keep a super-soldier under control, but he doesn’t appear to make that connection, thinking it’s an innate problem with the tech).

Moreover, Rade faces moral challenges when he ponders whether he’s working for the right side or betraying fellow modified humans (eventually there’s a clear signal on that front), and when he sees innocent bystanders endangered on missions. In addition, Rade acquires some unexpected allies, and experiences some deepening feelings for a colleague.

Ghost Cell is a fun popcorn read (as long as you’re okay with violence). The main character is reasonably empathetic and engaging, other characters and their dialogues are solid, the worldbuilding hangs together without dragging the plot down, and the action moves rapidly without getting confusing. I enjoyed it, and any reader who’s in the mood for this sort of book probably will too.

This book combines action and sci-fi adventure into the second book in this series featuring Ander Rade, a genetically modified human in a world that has turned against genetically modded humans.

Ander is tasked with infiltrating a secret organization via an old collegue of his. The plot is full of action and changing loyalties, and it's an easy read for action adventure readers. I'd recommend it to readers of Blake Crouch and other sci-fi action writers.

4.5 This series is for a very specific niche of readers who like action, military with futuristic supersoldiers in a violent urban setting/city with lots of action and missions, survival, and trying to trust the one beside you. There's still the issue of the betrayal of the team in the air. I like Sevrina a lot.

Back with both old and new characters. Lots of action as the past and present collide. Look for more as some things go unsolved.

It’s my first time reading Zac Topping’s work but I’m convinced I’ll read whatever he puts out next, because Ghost Cell is my kind of thriller. The scale of the action sequences is insanely impressive. He spares no expense at highlighting Rade’s modified abilities as a killer with well-crafted and high adrenaline skirmishes that will have you at the edge of your seat with grand shootouts and brutal close quarters combat. The action works in tandem with stellar characterization of Ander Rade as a protagonist you easily gel with. Even if you haven’t read the first book, you’re able to get a great feel for Rade as a man with a haunted past who wishes nothing more than to reconnect with his people. It’s this simple yet powerful desire that forms the crux of his character arc.