A Real Surprise

Started this set with no real expectations, it start off a bit slow but once the real story starts, it’s hard to switch off. It turned out to be a fantastic surprise. I loved it, Didn’t really want it to finish.
Great work.

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Worth a listen

Naysayers might not have listed to the lot

I wished there was more to the series

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good but not great.

some things are good but at some points the story gets a bit predictable and repetitive. the narrator does a decent job although there are a few voices that are cringy

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Interesting concept

Overall the story felt new and different however the ending was predictable.

Worth listening to but i probably won’t listen again.

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tony

wow the 1st book and a half where liked being nagged by mum, how many time in a story do need to repeat what the assassins were and what set them apart. In saying that, once the writer stopped nagging so much it was pretty good very predictable but good .

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Not terrible yet not bad

As others have said a little bit repetitive- by the 3rd book I was thinking “we already know this!” Predictable ending but still enjoyable. 4stars

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Freaking amazing and great ending.

This series was a surprise to me, way better than I expected. I recommend this series highly.

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Anything to do with assassins is very interesting.

Nothing really. Just that it could have been longer. You know you’re right into the story and it ends and you want more.

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Enthralling story

Good characters and story. Great value as a five book series. Well worth the listen.

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Character arc over five books risks losing readers

This story is a slow burn. It took all five books for the character arcs to really play out and for them to become more likable as we went along. Ultimately, I think it is worth hanging in there for the full series to explore and enjoy the world building, the interesting lives and culture of the space assassins, and some of the plot complexities. But it’s far from a perfect series and here’s why…

When your main characters are renowned for having no emotions, it makes it very hard for an author to create stakes in their story. This became a major problem for the first two books - because the protagonist wasn’t emotionally affected by anything due to his training it meant the author failed to create any tension as the plot played out. Which is probably why some reviews (from those who bowed out early in the series) are so negative. It was a series of connected exploits, but with no emotional foundation in those first few books. This does change in the final three books as Hozark begins to have something resembling emotions.

The infuriating amount of repetition suggests that this series might have been serialised originally and the constant reminders of…well, everything… might have worked in that context where it was a week or month between chapters. But as an audiobook where you just roll through the chapters it was really irritating.

The repetition of words and phrases (“circuitous”, “myriad”, “for all intents and purposes”, “when all was said and done”) screamed aloud in an audiobook and someone just needed to take to it with a red pen for the lazy editing (eg “…for the purpose it was intended for” and “for the poor child that was something that the poor child could really use about now.”

It disappointed me that for a space story (where there are endless worlds) there should be endless diversity, and there just wasn’t. All the main characters were humanoid, bipedal, English speaking, eyes forward, blood bleeders. There was the occasional nod to other species, but they tended to be beasts of burden or monsters or wallpaper species.

Lastly, there is a major plot twist that is revealed in the last book, and (sadly for me) I picked it during book 2. What this meant was that I spent the next three books thinking about how the author had structured the story to hide that plot twist, and this had the effect of constantly pulling me out of the story because I was analyzing it rather than just immersing in it. There was a mini twist on the major twist which helped make me feel the five book journey had been worth it. And some good closure in the epilogue which I should’ve seen coming, but didn’t. So those were strengths.

So, if you are still reading this lengthy critique (sorry!) I do think it was a good series for the world building and story, and the characters (many of whom were really likable). But you have to accept the flaws as mentioned above and kind of roll over them to enjoy it.

I definitely believe I got my moneys worth , since this was a one credit five book series on Audible, but would I say the same if I’d spent $40+ on it? Mmm... not sure.

Kudos to the author for maybe realizing this and bundling them so we got the whole series and more people made it to the end.

The good news, for the author is that most of the above is fixable. And would greatly enhance the listening/reading experience for the print readers if not the audio crowd.

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1 person found this helpful