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jen286's review against another edition
4.0
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
4.5 stars
Rath's Deception was such a fun read. I am so glad I gave it a read even though I was hesitant at first. Really I am usually hesitant to try anything space related since growing up I pretty much hated it all. If it was set in space, had to do with space travel, aliens, anything like that was a no go. However I find I enjoy quite a bit of it now so I need to give more sci-fi books a try.
Rath is a kid living on the streets in the lowest level of society. He doesn't have much, he lost his family, it is not the best place to live, but he is surviving however he needs to. There have always been rumors of the mysterious "Guild" who will train you to be a hitman and if you survive 50 kills you get half of all the money they made off you. So essentially you get millions of dollars, get to move up to the high society and live out the rest of your days in the lap of luxury. Only most people don't actually believe the Guild is real, just wishful thinking.
Rath wasn't sure about it either until they come to him offering to test him and see if he has what it takes to be one of them. The training is intense, but Rath is determined to learn everything and become one of the companies killers. I loved reading about the whole process. From the time Rath gets picked up until the last pages of the book his journey was so much fun. Well maybe not fun for him, but fun to read about. I really enjoyed the whole world the author created and how everything worked. Of course the company is not really good, but the reach they have is incredible. The technology they have at their fingertips is remarkable. All of the ways they change you once you sign on, the tracking, the face changing, everything was really cool. I loved seeing how they went about equipping the killers with everything they would need, how the people were killed, everything. There were so many great, unique methods of dealing with everything that I was drawn right in. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading.
There are other characters, other storylines going on at the same time. Like a reporter trying to figure out if the Guild is real. Or the cop who feels responsible for some of his cop friends deaths via a Guild member so is determined to try and find the Guild and stop them. Or the best assassin the Guild has ever had who disappears one day. It all gets woven together into an incredible story. All of the storylines worked so well together and were so much fun to read. I can't wait for the next book to see what happens next!
*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
4.5 stars
Rath's Deception was such a fun read. I am so glad I gave it a read even though I was hesitant at first. Really I am usually hesitant to try anything space related since growing up I pretty much hated it all. If it was set in space, had to do with space travel, aliens, anything like that was a no go. However I find I enjoy quite a bit of it now so I need to give more sci-fi books a try.
Rath is a kid living on the streets in the lowest level of society. He doesn't have much, he lost his family, it is not the best place to live, but he is surviving however he needs to. There have always been rumors of the mysterious "Guild" who will train you to be a hitman and if you survive 50 kills you get half of all the money they made off you. So essentially you get millions of dollars, get to move up to the high society and live out the rest of your days in the lap of luxury. Only most people don't actually believe the Guild is real, just wishful thinking.
Rath wasn't sure about it either until they come to him offering to test him and see if he has what it takes to be one of them. The training is intense, but Rath is determined to learn everything and become one of the companies killers. I loved reading about the whole process. From the time Rath gets picked up until the last pages of the book his journey was so much fun. Well maybe not fun for him, but fun to read about. I really enjoyed the whole world the author created and how everything worked. Of course the company is not really good, but the reach they have is incredible. The technology they have at their fingertips is remarkable. All of the ways they change you once you sign on, the tracking, the face changing, everything was really cool. I loved seeing how they went about equipping the killers with everything they would need, how the people were killed, everything. There were so many great, unique methods of dealing with everything that I was drawn right in. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading.
There are other characters, other storylines going on at the same time. Like a reporter trying to figure out if the Guild is real. Or the cop who feels responsible for some of his cop friends deaths via a Guild member so is determined to try and find the Guild and stop them. Or the best assassin the Guild has ever had who disappears one day. It all gets woven together into an incredible story. All of the storylines worked so well together and were so much fun to read. I can't wait for the next book to see what happens next!
*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
bibliovino's review against another edition
1.0
I was hard-pressed to finish this book. not sure why. I was excited to find something with a completed trilogy, but never got attached to any of the characters.
mindgonemad's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
capellan's review
2.0
Serviceable but not terribly engaging SF tale about an orphan recruited into an interstellar league of assassins. Suffers from a lack of emotionally engaging protagonists and a pretty much entire lack of antagonists: the shadowy bad guys are so shadowy as to be non-existent, on the page.
txbookmama's review
3.0
Somewhat interesting thriller / conspiracy theory sci fi story. I did have to kind of wonder about the things that made it through to the 'future' - they have implants that change your appearance with a thought - but savings & loans still exist?!
sfian's review
3.0
A reasonably un-taxing SF adventure featuring an anti-hero that, so far, has become neither likable or unlikable.
The emphasis is on the action, rather than character building, with a large amount of the book spent describing the increasingly elaborate kills that the title character pulls off. Consequently, there is little background on the universe that the story takes place in - it's obviously far-future and mankind has spread to the stars, but no history is given.
One rather jarring scene, where the action seems to fast-forward without explanation, is resolved later in the book, which was quite satisfying, but there are a number of details which need cleaning up - for example, if the Forge can create pretty much everything why, on after one mission, does Rath remind himself to bring cleaning supplies and why can't the Guild simply remote destroy Forges? Minor complaints, though...
The emphasis is on the action, rather than character building, with a large amount of the book spent describing the increasingly elaborate kills that the title character pulls off. Consequently, there is little background on the universe that the story takes place in - it's obviously far-future and mankind has spread to the stars, but no history is given.
One rather jarring scene, where the action seems to fast-forward without explanation, is resolved later in the book, which was quite satisfying, but there are a number of details which need cleaning up - for example, if the Forge can create pretty much everything why, on after one mission, does Rath remind himself to bring cleaning supplies and why can't the Guild simply remote destroy Forges? Minor complaints, though...
ejfisch's review
5.0
I received a free advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Call me morbid, but I’m kind of a sucker for cold-blooded assassins. When the author offered me a free read-for-review copy, I agreed without hesitation. The premise alone was enough to pique my curiosity: mysterious group recruits and trains troubled orphans to complete contract kills, and once the contractors complete 50 kills, they’re entitled to 50% of the profits from said contracts. But everything is not as it seems…
I have to say that for the first half or so of the book, I anticipated rating it 4 stars. There was something about Young!Rath that irritated me a little, but I was curious enough about what would happen that I was willing to keep reading. I’m honestly not sure if I really love Rath as a character, but he did grow on me as the book progressed, and I do like his story.
I found all the contractors’ technological capabilities really intriguing. At first I thought all their implants/hemobots/Forges would give them a level of power and skill that would make the things they did seem totally unrealistic, and while that was still the case to an extent, they didn’t seem too out of place given the futuristic environment. I found all of the tools Rath used to solve problems really interesting, and even with his enhanced abilities, he still had to fight his way through every mission, so it didn’t seem nearly as far-fetched as I was afraid it would.
As the story moved forward, I became more and more curious about what was going to happen. Realistically I probably would have given the book 4.5 stars, but I’m rounding up to 5 simply because I was pretty engrossed there toward the end. There were a couple of parts where I was thinking “Ehhhhh...I know this is sci fi but I doubt that could have actually happened” and I did feel like there were some kind of expository chunks of dialogue that gave the reader a lot of information that I would have preferred to figure out on my own. But neither of these things made me scoff or throw my Kindle across the room in disgust, so I’m just kind of overlooking them.
I do have to say that I appreciated the fact that the author has a military background and therefore used correct terminology when it came to firearms, tactics, etc.
One other small thing I enjoyed was the occasional glimpse into the control room where The Group was monitoring all of its contractors. There was something fun about getting that inside look, and I liked how those scenes also told us a little about what the other contractors were doing. I’m very excited to see how things play out with the other two contractors who have been introduced to the story, particularly Contractor 339...because if there’s anything I love more than badass assassin characters, it’s badass lady assassin characters!
The intrigue of Jason Bourne meets the tech and grit of Terminator...in space. This is kind of a dark story verging on cyberpunk, but it’s a story I enjoyed very much.
Oh, and it might be worth it to suggest reading the prequel short story, [b:Last Pursuit|21842321|Last Pursuit (The Janus Group)|Piers Platt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396547690s/21842321.jpg|41111010]. I actually read it while I was about halfway through this book. It could serve as a good introduction to the series, or in my case, a refreshing look back at a different character going through the same struggles as the characters in the main story.
Call me morbid, but I’m kind of a sucker for cold-blooded assassins. When the author offered me a free read-for-review copy, I agreed without hesitation. The premise alone was enough to pique my curiosity: mysterious group recruits and trains troubled orphans to complete contract kills, and once the contractors complete 50 kills, they’re entitled to 50% of the profits from said contracts. But everything is not as it seems…
I have to say that for the first half or so of the book, I anticipated rating it 4 stars. There was something about Young!Rath that irritated me a little, but I was curious enough about what would happen that I was willing to keep reading. I’m honestly not sure if I really love Rath as a character, but he did grow on me as the book progressed, and I do like his story.
I found all the contractors’ technological capabilities really intriguing. At first I thought all their implants/hemobots/Forges would give them a level of power and skill that would make the things they did seem totally unrealistic, and while that was still the case to an extent, they didn’t seem too out of place given the futuristic environment. I found all of the tools Rath used to solve problems really interesting, and even with his enhanced abilities, he still had to fight his way through every mission, so it didn’t seem nearly as far-fetched as I was afraid it would.
As the story moved forward, I became more and more curious about what was going to happen. Realistically I probably would have given the book 4.5 stars, but I’m rounding up to 5 simply because I was pretty engrossed there toward the end. There were a couple of parts where I was thinking “Ehhhhh...I know this is sci fi but I doubt that could have actually happened” and I did feel like there were some kind of expository chunks of dialogue that gave the reader a lot of information that I would have preferred to figure out on my own. But neither of these things made me scoff or throw my Kindle across the room in disgust, so I’m just kind of overlooking them.
I do have to say that I appreciated the fact that the author has a military background and therefore used correct terminology when it came to firearms, tactics, etc.
One other small thing I enjoyed was the occasional glimpse into the control room where The Group was monitoring all of its contractors. There was something fun about getting that inside look, and I liked how those scenes also told us a little about what the other contractors were doing. I’m very excited to see how things play out with the other two contractors who have been introduced to the story, particularly Contractor 339...because if there’s anything I love more than badass assassin characters, it’s badass lady assassin characters!
The intrigue of Jason Bourne meets the tech and grit of Terminator...in space. This is kind of a dark story verging on cyberpunk, but it’s a story I enjoyed very much.
Oh, and it might be worth it to suggest reading the prequel short story, [b:Last Pursuit|21842321|Last Pursuit (The Janus Group)|Piers Platt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396547690s/21842321.jpg|41111010]. I actually read it while I was about halfway through this book. It could serve as a good introduction to the series, or in my case, a refreshing look back at a different character going through the same struggles as the characters in the main story.
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