Assassins Galore
by j.tanI just realised as I was writing this, that both books I’d just finished reading were filled with assassins. One a babe, and the other a dude.
Cally’s War
One of John Ringo’s spin-offs from his Posleen war series. This one actually takes place years after the war has ended (now you know who wins!! ;)), on an Earth that is at relative peace with the aliens that inhabit it and help rule it. All behind the scenes of course.
Our heroine is an assassin. Brought up that way, trained and mentally conditioned that way. She is freaking scary. In the opening scenes, we meet a guy that absolutely scared me. He’s brutal, he’s evil, he’s suspicious, and he’s really really really fond of torturing girls…
Cally of course, eventually goes up against him, takes everything he can throw at her, and then beats the crap out of him before going home for a nice bubble bath and sleep.
Cally rocks.
The main event is mostly interesting and fast moving. There are bits where the pace suddenly drops, or the focus switches entirely to a different character entirely. It can be a little jarring… But what the heck, John Ringo’s not known for an awesome literary skill. He’s better known for explosive, nail-biting action books that are a thorough joy to read…
The backdrop to the main event however, is quite very interesting. There’s a powerplay going on in the back ground that will obviously be played out in later books. Don’t get me wrong, this is a self-contained book. But you can tell that there is an over-arching strategy for the humans to get rid of those annoying aliens that are attempting to manipulate the events of Earth…
All in all, quite really actiony fun!
The other one was Way of Shadows.
This was the one I was whinging about not having been able to read because people kept stealing my last copy before I was able to get to it…
It’s good! It really really is. It’s got some of those good old stereotypes that you’d expect. Apprentice assassin from the streets, master assassin imparting all his knowledge before he permanently retires from the scene.
But built up on top of that is very skilled story writing, well-paced action, hopes and dreams and the shattering of them…
So there you go! More great books to read!
Tags: assassin, brent weeks, cally's war, john ringo, way of shadows