What I probably liked best about his 4-5 star science fiction story is that it hints of golden age Heinlein or Asimov while skipping the golden age's glaring foibles. In those days, science fiction writers were often like having teachers of future science telling you an exciting story about how it will be, THEN. That, and I think Mr. Richards wants to test the idea of how long he can get a reader to hold their breath.The author, or editor, knows commercial fiction rules, like… something has to be happening at least every other page. This makes the book an extremely fast and exciting read. This is the case with Wired.
In retrospect, the prologue seems odd at best. Introduce one of you main characters with a false name being betrayed by one of the bodyguards she hired to guard her. No doubt that turned out to be a solid hook dragging you quickly into the book, but looking back, it seems irrelevant, except for the mighty fact it does drag you over lumps and bumps well into the story.
The story starts proper with another of our main characters, David Desh, an ex-special forces soldier, being asked by a top tier black ops officer, Col. Jim Connely to come in and consult on an operation their black operatives have already failed more than once. This alerts us that David is extraordinary, and he's being asked to do a job his fellow special ops buddies have already failed. It tells us just by the meeting that the Colonel in charge believes David Desh is uniquely qualified to do the job. Then we learn rather quickly that the mission is a higher priority than trying to stop UFOs from messing with our nuclear arsenal.
