Kirkus
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Futuristic robots take center stage in the Gray Man’s latest bloody adventure. Courtland “the Gray Man” Gentry and Zoya Zakharova are lovers trying to enjoy a peaceful hideaway by Guatemala’s beautiful Lake Atitlán when a tiny drone with facial recognition capabilities tracks them down. A worldwide manhunt is underway for them, and Russia has a capture-or-kill order out on Zoya. For those just tuning in to the series, by the way, the twosome used to be mortal enemies. Now one of the planet’s most infamous killers for hire is after them, an evildoer named Scott Kincaid, aka Lancer. But on to the main plot: Multibillionaire Anton Hinton is building a lethal autonomous weapon driven by artificial intelligence. Strangely, over a 34-hour period, 10 people involved in AI and robotics have been murdered around the world. Hinton insists he’s just trying to bring some sanity into the world: With these machines engaging in any necessary fighting and doing so with perfect judgment, human wars could become a thing of the past. Wait a sec, just looking for the perfect cliche. Oh yes: What could possibly go wrong? Greaney, a terrific action writer, has jumped the shark (oops, another cliche; it won’t happen again, sorry) with a science fiction setup involving bomb-wielding hexacopters, rifle-wielding robot dogs, and a superintelligent creature named Cyrus who’s controlled by 800 IBM mainframe computers. So who will get control of this technology? China, maybe. Or, as series regular Zack Hightower says as he wipes his bloody nose, “America…. Fuck, yeah.” In a scene emblematic of the story’s chaos, Zoya lies in a dead man’s blood as the man’s left leg is hit, “and it snapped and shattered the bone there, bits of meat spraying in all directions.” And, in a contemplative moment with Zoya, Court says he just wants to be with her in peace, while he wonders if he’d “ever be able to stop killing motherfuckers who deserved to die.” Indeed, violence is the point of his life. Greaney could dial back the bloodletting a notch and still have an exciting story. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.