""The Spear and the Sentinel," by J.L. Hancock, and published by Braveship Books, is an addition to the avalanche of recent fiction merging changes rooted in rapidly evolving technology related to the A. I. revolution and more traditional action/adventure. It is Book #2 in the author's "Voodoo" series, and therein lies one of my problems with it. I confess that I have not read book 1, and I have a strong sense that had I approached the series in sequence I might have found it more approachable. Candidly, I lean towards technofiction, but the latest iterations, with their greatly increased dependence on IT and AI for plot lines frequently leave me shaking my head. I thank the publisher for kindly providing me with the ARC that I am working from, but I am afraid the tale, as a narrative, quickly overpowered my meager claims to expertise in computer science, and often seemed more chaotic to me than it should have. I suspect that some of this is a function of my advanced years and the biases I have acquired in a long career in academia looking at this type of fiction. Nonetheless, there is merit here although I found it far from convincing, particularly in its action sequences as well as the articulation of central drivers of the narrative. If you have a strong background technically and are really not in it for the action, this may well appeal to you, but I am afraid it just did not rise to the level I was looking for as an "action" novel. My advice to would be readers is to read the series in sequence and try to keep an open mind about ;your expectations in action/adventure fiction.

This was a strong sequel in the Voodoo series, it uses the overall story perfectly. The characters were everything that I was hoping for and worked with the first book. It had that storyline that I was looking for and enjoyed the way this world felt like the same world. J.L. Hancock has a strong writing style and can’t wait for more.