Posted by This starts off wild and then leans into itself harder the further along in the story you get. It starts out with an assassin reminiscing about his newly deceased parents who were also assassins and taught him the trade. They wanted to retire, but instead they flew off a cliff in their RV. It was probably a hit, but it’s also possible it was a genuine accident — since a good assassin can make a hit look like an accident he can’t be sure.
Anyway, he’s got a neat AI called Bubbles, and she’s great. She talks back to him, offers up banter and provides a constant companion for someone whose job makes it difficult to connect with people. He takes jobs all over the world and keeps his kills mostly bad guys. He tries not to kill anyone he doesn’t think deserves it, but sometimes shit happens. I’d say it’s an almost cathartic experience for him when he’s out killing ninjas and telekinetic assassins, but he’s not someone who’s super creepy and likes inflicting pain and death on people. Quick, clean, get home before anyone notices is his kind of game.
Well, some ninjas found his secret hideout and he doesn’t know how or why they tracked him down. Some revelations occur when he interrogates them and it appears as though this may all tie in with his childhood… a childhood he can’t really remember. His parents aren’t his biological parents but he’s always known that. However, everything leading up to living with his parents is a blank. But now there are some random new bits of information he can’t ignore. The plot takes some twists and turns so I’ll leave the synopsis there. A lot is packed into a small space, I’d say things picked up quick for me around 20% and hurtled on from there.
The MC himself is extremely snarky, he’s almost Deadpool like with his morbid dead-pan humor, a tendency to talk to people as he kills them, and his near untouchable prowess at his craft. I honestly was a touch bored with him since he killed everyone so easily it hardly seemed fair at first— but then he meets people with abilities as strong or stronger than his own, and that’s when things actually got interesting for me. His ridiculous talent in so many different areas did kind of get under my skin. The guy isn’t just the world’s best, most untouchable assassin. He also speaks eleven languages… things like that. It got to be too much to believe, and it really only kept my interest since other people came in and could literally crush him like a tin can. This is a book for people who like incredible powers and characters that use them actively and brutally.
This is written with super fast dialogue, prose that got out of the way of the story, and action spaced out in a way that keeps things moving fast from beginning to end. If you want an action hero battle of telekinetic assassins, this could be for you. It does get a bit extreme at times, though. This is very much so a Avengers type book with outlandish action scenes and over the top situational humor — but it’s pretty entertaining nonetheless. It really starts to lean into itself, and it leans so hard that it breaks the fourth wall.
Another area where my suspension of disbelief wavered was when people all arrived at one place due to convenient timing, last minute saves, and the way people just accepted the fact he’s super-powered when maybe that should be more alarming. An example of the latter is when a nurse just rolls with it when he tells her he’s an assassin with special abilities and the nuns down the hallway are not in fact nuns, but nunsassins. (Like I said, shit gets really over the top) And she’s all like “sure, okay, let’s call them Twisted Sisters” lolol, it danced the line of breaking my suspension of disbelief but I was able to hang on. I might come back to this series if I need just a fun pick me up. It has a nice ending which helps it carry a fun tone from beginning to end.
Ratings:
- Plot: 11.5/15
- Characters: 12.5/15
- World Building: 12/15
- Writing: 12.5/15
- Pacing: 13.5/15
- Originality: 11/15
- Enjoyment: 8/10
Final Score: 81/100