Drakon

This is about an almost-invulnerable superbeing from the future who arrives in our present (more or less) and goes around ruthlessly killing people, pursued by a somewhat more vulnerable adversary also from the future. Sounds familiar?Well, it's not the same story nor the same scenario as The Terminator, but there are certain similarities.Stirling writes with his usual high level of competence, the story flows readably, and there are a few mildly likeable characters. On second reading, I've decided to uprate it from 2 to 3 stars, because it does make an exciting story.However, the attitudes and behaviour of the Draka are basically repulsive; so, if you read any Draka book, be prepared for a strong dose of repulsiveness. You have been warned. For large parts of this book, only one Draka is present in the story, but that's more than enough.I haven't read the other books in the Draka series, although I read the free initial chapters of the first one ([b:Marching Through Georgia 801962 Marching Through Georgia (Draka, #1) S.M. Stirling https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1266648227l/801962.SY75.jpg 787925]) as published on Stirling's Web site. I don't feel good reading about the Draka.I bought this one on whim in 2012 because I happened to notice the Kindle version and it wasn't expensive.I like Stirling as a writer, but I'm quite often disappointed at the things he chooses to write about.In this case, it's as though he saw a Doctor Who story involving the Daleks sometime, and he thought, “No! Are these pathetic things supposed to be super-Nazis? I could do a much better job of designing super-Nazis.” And so he did. I'm not convinced that the creation of the Draka was useful or life-enhancing, but perhaps it illustrates the human fascination with creation for its own sake.