History Literature / KillDecision

Unmanned weaponized drones already exist—they’re widely used by America in its war efforts in the Middle East. In Kill Decision, bestselling author Daniel Suarez of ''Literature/{{Daemon}}'' duology fame takes that fact and the real science behind it one step further, with frightening results.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Linda meets Odin after the villains, having stolen enough of her work for their drones, try to have her assassinated.

* {{Badass}}

Relevant tropes:

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Mordecai wanted nothing to do with Odin's quest. But the villains repay him for tipping them off about Odin and Linda by trying to have him killed too, which drives him into Odin's arms.

* CleverCrows: Odin has a pair of ravens that carry cameras and do recon for him. They are ''of course'' named [[NorseMythology Huginn and Muninn]].

* HumansAreBastards: Inverted. Odin tells Linda that the reason why artificially intelligent drones driven by insect logic are such a threat is because humans would eventually bring an end to hostilities, even with the worst atrocities. Insect logic, on the other hand, cannot be reasoned or negotiated with and will just keep attacking until either all the targets or the whole drone "colony" is utterly eradicated.

Linda [=McKinney=] is a myrmecologist, a scientist who studies the social structure of ants. Her academic career has left her entirely unprepared for the day her sophisticated research is conscripted by unknown forces to help run an unmanned—and thanks to her research, automated—drone army. 'Odin' is the secretive Special Ops soldier with a unique insight into the faceless enemy who has begun to attack the American homeland with drones programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention.

* AttackDrones - pretty much the entire premise.

* CleverCrows: one of the protagonists has a pair of ravens that carry cameras and do recon for him. They are ''of course'' named [[NorseMythology Huginn and Muninn]].
* CrazyPrepared: Odin and his team have secret bases all over the world stocked with everything you could possibly need to fight a RobotWar.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After Strickland discovers that someone is stealing his team's code and gathers them,]] the villains have them killed before they can investigate further or tip anyone off.
* HiddenVillain: For a large part of the story we never see the villains orchestrating the drone attacks, only a pair of spin doctors in their employ.

* ActionSurvivor

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Linda meets Odin after the villains, having stole enough of her work for their drones, try to have her assassinated.

* TitleDrop: '''Lethal Autonomy''': Drones that fly themselves and make a '''kill decision''' without direct human involvement. A major revolution in military affairs... ...combining all the worst aspects of cyber war—anonymity and scalability—with the physical violence of kinetic war. A successful design could be stolen and cheaply punched out by the tens of thousands in offshore factories, then sent anonymously against anyone without fear of retribution.

* NaughtyTentacles: In-universe it's mentioned that some geeky minor character has this stuff all over his place. The female Professor sees it and is ''not'' amused.

* RavensAndCrows: one of the protagonists has a pair of ravens that carry cameras and do recon for him. They are ''of course'' named [[NorseMythology Huginn and Muninn]].

Unmanned weaponized drones already exist—they’re widely used by America in its war efforts in the Middle East. In Kill Decision, bestselling author Daniel Suarez takes that fact and the real science behind it one step further, with frightening results.

The shocking techno-thriller that cements Daniel Suarez’s (best known for the ''Literature/{{Daemon}}'' duology) status as the heir to Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy—a terrifying, breathtaking, and all-too-plausible vision of the world’s near future.

* RavensAndCrows: one of the protagonists has a pair of ravens that carry cameras and do recon for him. They are ''of course'' named [[NorseMythology Huginn and Muninn]].

The shocking techno-thriller that cements Daniel Suarez’s status as the heir to Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy—a terrifying, breathtaking, and all-too-plausible vision of the world’s near future.

Unmanned weaponized drones already exist—they’re widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East. In Kill Decision, bestselling author Daniel Suarez takes that fact and the real science behind it one step further, with frightening results.

* RavensAndCrows: one of the protagonists has a pair of ravens that carry cameras and do recon for him. They are ''of course'' named [[NorseMythology Huginn and Muninn]]

Linda McKinney is a myrmecologist, a scientist who studies the social structure of ants. Her academic career has left her entirely unprepared for the day her sophisticated research is conscripted by unknown forces to help run an unmanned—and thanks to her research, automated—drone army. Odin is the secretive Special Ops soldier with a unique insight into the faceless enemy who has begun to attack the American homeland with drones programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention.

Together, McKinney and Odin must slow this advance long enough for the world to recognize its destructive power, because for thousands of years the “kill decision” during battle has remained in the hands of humans—and off-loading that responsibility to machines will bring unintended, possibly irreversible, consequences. But as forces even McKinney and Odin don’t understand begin to gather, and death rains down from above, it may already be too late to save humankind from destruction at the hands of our own technology.