Military fantasy novel Control Point pits humans against mutants

“Military fantasy” is one of the latest sub-categories falling under the urban fantasy genre that manages to conjure some pleasing images of superpower-charged battles sprawled across the plentiful confines of a high-definition television. At least, that’s what Myke Cole’s first book of the new Shadow Ops series seems to imply.

Control Point begins and grows as a steady spurt of non-stop action, right from the first chapter, which finds US army Lt Oscar Britton playing witness to the horrific slaughter of a rogue “Prole” – a human bestowed with latent magical abilities – by the Supernatural Operations Corps. Before long, however, Britton finds himself the unwilling beneficiary of special powers and, hence, on the run from the same people he once fought for. Yet another sudden twist of fate finds him in the heart of another army, this one propelled by the very forces he struggles to control within himself.

Strikingly similar to a certain famous mutants-versus-humans franchise, the Shadow Ops series looks to tread very familiar ground. Though compromised on originality, the detailed action scenes are cinematic by themselves and help bolster an otherwise average plot.