Tin Men

In the future, American soldiers fight on the front lines not with their bodies, but with robotic avatars that are controlled remotely from a high-security subterranean base in Germany. They're called the Remote Infantry Corps, or, more informally, "Tin Men." Narrator Stephen Mendel's gravelly voice is well suited to the gritty plot of this sci-fi. He balances the extremes of cold professionalism and high emotion as the characters find themselves facing a disaster of cataclysmic proportions when a human terrorist finds the weak link in the seemingly invulnerable robotic forces. The diverse characters have Mendel tackling everything from Arabic accents to Texas drawls. His female voices, while not as varied, carry a lighter tone that is convincing but not patronizing. An utterly compelling listen. E.E. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

February 9, 2015
Golden (Snowblind) spikes this superior near-future shoot-’em-up with hints of deeper concerns. The U.S. uses the “Tin Men” of its Remote Infantry Corps—virtually indestructible robots controlled at long distance by American soldiers—to enforce its will on the rest of the world. One platoon patrolling Damascus, however, is attacked by anarchists who have new bot-killing weapons, just as a worldwide electromagnetic pulse fries all electrical circuits and seals the soldiers’ minds inside the metal bodies. The isolated Tin Men must get to Athens, where a global anarchist group is targeting a conference of world leaders. Meanwhile, a saboteur is at work back in the robot operators’ underground headquarters in Germany. The characters sometimes note that bullying by world powers inevitably produces hostility among the people who are being pushed around; immediately, however, this is drowned out by the clamor of dying anarchists and exploding robots. Within its chosen limits, this is a wonderfully effective SF thriller. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.