Jules Jones - CD Review: Kaldor City 3

Kaldor City 3 - Hidden Persuaders

The political game continues in Kaldor City, but the stakes are getting higher. Tarenists have resorted to violence, and more than one person is pulling the strings. All the players are working for their own ends, but what will the final result be? One thing you can be sure of--this is Kaldor City, so there'll be death and destruction along the way.

The story opens with a funeral--one of Uvanov's old political enemies, as it turns out. He was murdered by terrorists from the Church of Taren Capel, and the funeral provides an excellent opportunity for various people to make political capital out of the terrorism blighting Kaldor City.

The Tarenists are real, and dangerous, but Uvanov isn't above using them for his own purposes. Uvanov doesn't have a double agent, but he has something almost as good--Blayes, one of his former security agents, is now working for the Tarenists, and Carnell can use her personnel records to predict her behaviour. Of course, this makes her as valuable as an actual double agent would be, so when a Tarenist raid on Oxygenator 4 goes wrong, Uvanov wants her pulled out safely--whatever the cost...

Multiple plot threads are skilfully interwoven, with the main plot being resolved, but one or two loose ends left dangling for next time. The script nicely develops the main characters, and there's excellent acting from all of the cast. My favourites are still Russell Hunter as Uvanov and Scott Fredericks as Carnell, but there are plenty of well-rounded (if psychotic) characters to be fond of. Those characters plus lots of small details in the script help build up the picture of Kaldor City as a real society.

You'll want to listen to the series in order, but this episode is well worth having.