A Superior lands on present day Earth...

[Cray]

Sounds like an interesting read. I imagine that a superior arriving on present day earth could become some sort of commercial and philanthropic titan within a within a relatively short amount of time.

Yep.

From there they could directly jump into politics or influence things indirectly.

Well, fund a fusion reactor and wormhole generator to signal her home era and timeline, then bring through an invasion force. She gets to be planetary archon of Earth as a "finder's fee."

The spec ops "good guy" (who'd be happy to drop an amat bomb on NYC to eliminate his opponent) is much less trained and skilled in manipulation. He was fumbling toward building an alliance of locals.

A bit like the film limitless but probably toned down a bit.

"Superior" is a bit of a stretch for their mental capabilities, but dumb they ain't.

Not that there would be a guarantee that they would succeed if they tried, they could fail due to mistakes and events outside of their control, but with their abilities and knowledge of advanced technology they'd be far more likely to succeed than your average human.

Yep, and the Su on the cover has a Plan B if she gets killed before calling home: make a clone with a DNI carrying a copy of her memories, and bio-bomb Earth to kill everyone except her inoculated local servants. Rebuild from there.

One of the things I like about the book is that Stirling really gives insights into the thoughts and minds of the various main characters. The police officer, the business analyst, and the Superior antagonist are all living characters with well-developed backgrounds. The antagonist is sociopathically blase about getting her way, which is an interesting glimpse into the mind of evil. But then he highlights all the details she ignores - the impact of death, rape, and mass murder - from the perspectives of other characters.