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bookstacker 's review for:
The Reluctant Assassin
by Eoin Colfer
This is the first book in the teen fiction W.A.R.P. series written by the author of the popular Artemis Fowl books. It is a time travel story utilizing somewhat faulty machinery that creates the ultimate villain from the past. I really enjoyed the different cultural viewpoints between eras. Having an older teen girl that is a bad-ass teamed up with a younger boy with the skills of a magician that was groomed to be an assassin against his will was a great combination especially to highlight how time changes perceptions of what is considered “normal” behavior. An action packed story where youth persevere and risk it all to do what’s right versus a really powerful enemy.
The story begins when, Riley, a boy from Victorian London, who has tried several times to escape, Garrick, his master who has been grooming him to be an assassin. They’ve been hired to kill a gentlemen but Riley balks causing Garrick to force his hand. Unknowingly to them the man is from the future and his bed doubles as a hiding spot for the time travel pod, which has been triggered. Riley is whisked to the future along with the dead man.
Chevron is of Native American descent. She’s an orphan that was groomed for an American FBI covert program where they use youth to spy on other youths they think might be part of a terrorist organization. However, due to her revealing herself and her training things have to be hushed up so she is sent to London for a super secret assignment. It’s nothing exciting. Just babysitting some weird contraption under the watchful eye of Agent Orange who refuses to tell her why keeping an eye on this ancient machinery is important. That is until power goes out and a boy along with a mutated corpse, which was caused by the transportation suddenly appears. A man Agent Orange, now revealed to be named Smart, considers a father.
Turns out this pod has been used to whisk away witnesses to the past until it’s time to testify as an extreme protection program. However, the program was nixed when the creator, Smart’s father, decided to go into hiding himself in the past. They’ve been watching for returnees ever since. Unfortunately with his father’s death they need to send a cleanup team to the past. They ignore Riley’s warning that there is an extremely competent assassin named Garrick that will do anything to retrieve him even though the boy would prefer to get away from him. The team utilizing using time keys necessary to operate the machinery go back in time to make sure no future knowledge is being passed around, which would cause havoc in the future. They never return.
Meanwhile Garrick, who was a magician before becoming an assassin, is thrilled by the thought of real magic evidenced by the transportation. He’s also obsessed with getting Riley back under his thumb. When the cleanup crew shows up he murders them but Smart manages to get back in the time travel pod and triggers it. Garrick jumps in with him before he is whisked away. Due to the mechanics of the wormhole the two men are merged together and Garrick achieves the ability to manipulate his body down to the cellular level as well as gain future knowledge from his merge with Smart. He is able to make himself even look like Smart and using this ability he frames Chevron with the murder of the cleanup crew.
Chevron and Riley must somehow escape Garrick while trying to figure a way of dealing with him. A thrill ride that never stops as they go from one bad situation to another including a return to the past. They never know whom they can trust. How many of these people they meet in the past are actually from the future and how can they beat someone as powerful as Garrick?
The story begins when, Riley, a boy from Victorian London, who has tried several times to escape, Garrick, his master who has been grooming him to be an assassin. They’ve been hired to kill a gentlemen but Riley balks causing Garrick to force his hand. Unknowingly to them the man is from the future and his bed doubles as a hiding spot for the time travel pod, which has been triggered. Riley is whisked to the future along with the dead man.
Chevron is of Native American descent. She’s an orphan that was groomed for an American FBI covert program where they use youth to spy on other youths they think might be part of a terrorist organization. However, due to her revealing herself and her training things have to be hushed up so she is sent to London for a super secret assignment. It’s nothing exciting. Just babysitting some weird contraption under the watchful eye of Agent Orange who refuses to tell her why keeping an eye on this ancient machinery is important. That is until power goes out and a boy along with a mutated corpse, which was caused by the transportation suddenly appears. A man Agent Orange, now revealed to be named Smart, considers a father.
Turns out this pod has been used to whisk away witnesses to the past until it’s time to testify as an extreme protection program. However, the program was nixed when the creator, Smart’s father, decided to go into hiding himself in the past. They’ve been watching for returnees ever since. Unfortunately with his father’s death they need to send a cleanup team to the past. They ignore Riley’s warning that there is an extremely competent assassin named Garrick that will do anything to retrieve him even though the boy would prefer to get away from him. The team utilizing using time keys necessary to operate the machinery go back in time to make sure no future knowledge is being passed around, which would cause havoc in the future. They never return.
Meanwhile Garrick, who was a magician before becoming an assassin, is thrilled by the thought of real magic evidenced by the transportation. He’s also obsessed with getting Riley back under his thumb. When the cleanup crew shows up he murders them but Smart manages to get back in the time travel pod and triggers it. Garrick jumps in with him before he is whisked away. Due to the mechanics of the wormhole the two men are merged together and Garrick achieves the ability to manipulate his body down to the cellular level as well as gain future knowledge from his merge with Smart. He is able to make himself even look like Smart and using this ability he frames Chevron with the murder of the cleanup crew.
Chevron and Riley must somehow escape Garrick while trying to figure a way of dealing with him. A thrill ride that never stops as they go from one bad situation to another including a return to the past. They never know whom they can trust. How many of these people they meet in the past are actually from the future and how can they beat someone as powerful as Garrick?