THE GOTLAND DECEPTION

Rosone’s near-future technothriller spins a cautionary tale about the integration of artificial intelligence into modern warfare.

The year is 2032. China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have formed the Eurasian Defense and Economic Pact. North Korea has free access to Chinese ports and Russian energy. Taiwan has recently become a province of China. When the EDEP announces large-scale military and naval exercises in the South China Sea, the North Pacific, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe all at once, the world is suddenly paying very close attention. Coincidentally, Beijing also announces the establishment of the Maritime Sovereignty Protection Zone after claiming that Taiwanese authorities have failed to control the flow of an illicit drug known as Vortex; as of April 15th, all vessels entering Chinese ports, explicitly those bound for Taiwan, will be subject to rigorous customs inspections. Those vessels exhibiting resistance, hostile intent, or failing to comply will be boarded by patrolling naval units. It’s a classic pretext for provocation, and now the writing is firmly on the wall: If Taiwan falls, the rest of the world will fall along with it. In response, the United States creates the well-funded and well-equipped Taiwan Study Group to secretly support Taiwan’s independence, offering Taiwan carte blanche access to the best unmanned, autonomous weapons systems money can buy. As the author deftly builds the tension between the world’s most powerful countries, the end result will ultimately be decided by whoever commands the digital and physical battlespace. Rosone’s experience in the military is evident in the dizzying array of acronyms and jargon that graces the pages—while adding authenticity to the story, this also is distracting to the reader at times (as when the author describes “a backpack-mounted omni-antenna disguised as a folded bird blind frame—used to passively scan for encrypted VHF comms from new SHORAD nodes”). His narrative turns the traditional novel on its head; instead of a traditional cast of characters, technology plays the central character here, with countries serving as secondary characters. And it works.

A heady technothriller that reads like the lovechild of Cory Doctorow and Tom Clancy.