Space Assassins 1 & 2: A Space Assassin Bundle

Product Information

Space Assassins is set in a magical universe. This team of assassins accept a contract and set off on a magical adventure full of twists and turns. They are skilled in magic and armed with the most powerful blade of all. The setting in which this story takes place is space but the spaceships are powered by magic and the people with the most magic to power ships are used as slaves for that purpose. The only creatures that don't need spaceships are some kind of space dragon but unfortunately we don't encounter one in this book. The setting is complex, involving many races. The plot is fast and action filled. There are some twists and turns in the plot, all well handled. Though the plot is slow due to the fact what is happening, it still has enough action scenes to keep the stakes high enough. It feels a bit like a bridge book to the fifth and final one, but I can forgive that considering this book gives more insight into the characters and their dynamics together. Their bonds grow stronger and stronger because of all the things that are happening. The road to their end goal is long and of course, filled with danger, so they just have to work together. Some characters do that better than other ones, which gives a good portion of fun and humor that is needed in the time it takes place. Found family is one of my favorite tropes to read about, and this definitely has it. They all want to help each other and go far to do so, making it also more realistic that sometimes they win more fights, something I had a bit of trouble believing in the other books. Due to the insight on how everyone trains (which doesn’t slow the book down, in my opinion) that disbelief carried away.

The magic in this world was very fascinating. It made me curious to know more and more about it, but at the same time it seemed to be more than what the story required at this point which made it a little bit confusing. 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 main focus of this story is that Hozark is to assassinate this Emmik, but to do so, he is going to have to get past the guards of the Emmik, and if intel is correct, one of those protecting the Emmik is a former Wampeh Ghalian, who carries a formidable weapon, one that can only be used properly by a Wampeh Ghalian – A Vespus Blade. Same was true with the world building. As I mentioned before, I found it to be really good, but at the same it was written in an info-dump-y way and there was quite a lot of it. Despite this, I have to say, coming as a surprise to me, it was very easy get through them.

Bursting through a bulkhead door with unleashed fury, the Culexus Assassin slaughtered their way through Aun’Va’s guards and, after a brief chase through the streets outside, cut down the Ethereal Supreme. This book feels like it should be longer. It's set up to be one of those long ass book with big sciencey words that I end up not remembering or caring to remember because they're so long and so many. But this book is nothing like that! This was a very mixed bag for me. The pacing was good, and the narrator was decent. That said, I had a hard time trying to marry fantasy (magic) with sci fi (space travel); saying spells to make it possible doesn't work for me, especially since it's never really elaborated or explained. However, Moore does an amazing job of conveying the emotional range of his characters, so you really understand what they are feeling, from happy to sad, angry to joyful, you get a good understanding of all of this.

There's a huge world of wich we only see a fraction but we follow Hozark, an assassin, and one of the deadliest of them all!! We create some empathy with him, even knowing him to be fearless and emotionless (on purpose)!! The main character is deeper than the rest of them, but being such a short book I didn't expect a lot of character development outside the main ones!! The ending was definitely intense, but it also made it quite obvious what should have a twist at a later point in the story. Nonetheless, I'm very eager to continue on with the series. The Interstellar Slayer introduces us to a world where the science in science fiction is more or less replaced with magic! The universe has magic and projects magic all around!! Characters themselves have little to no magic, having to resource to devices that'll give them the powers!! During this mission, we met Bud, his pilot, his co-pilot Laskar, and Demelza, another Wampeh Ghalian that becomes tied to Hozark’s mission.There is nothing wrong with shorter length fantasy/sci-fi, as long as it is done right. One notable example is Martha Wells Murderbot series. Each book is short and sweet but the character’s voice is so strong throughout and everything is told from their perspective. Unfortunately, this was not the case in this story. If you like Sci-Fi books and are possibly a little bit of a techy, I guarantee you will enjoy reading this one. It was hard to put down! If you love a good story, doesn’t matter the genre, you will like this – and seriously –‘MAGICAL VAMPIRE ASSASSINS!!!’, do I have to say anything else??

World building is limited at times but descriptive and livid enough to grasp the environment the characters are currently in. Can feel that the author really tried to relay the images in his own head onto paper. Or so he thought until someone quite unexpected reared their head. An appearance that gave him pause. Someone he had thought long dead. His former lover. A revelation like that could throw even a master assassin for a loop. That she too was an assassin only complicated things more.

Publication Order of Collections

Thanks to the Editor and BookSirens. I received this book in exchange for an honest review so here we go! Mr. Baron has a created a main character that is an assassin who appears to be powerful and overcomes any obstacle he faces to complete the assassination. As I read the story, I did not feel the main character was not facing any adversity and there did not seem to be any real stakes or danger. I thought the other characters featured are flat and not fully fleshed out and realized. When the death of a key enemy commander, rogue psyker, or vile demagogue would avert potential disaster for the Imperium, the High Lords of Terra authorise the use of their most deadly weapons: Imperial Assassins. Drawn from several diverse temples and possessed of skills far beyond the capabilities of ordinary humans, the assassins are trained to succeed against even the deadliest of foes. They will complete their mission, no matter the cost.

The Interstellar Slayer had everything a good fantasy story needs for me: interesting magic system, interesting races, political construct, revolution, intrigue, coup d'é·tat, assassins (a whole freakin shapeshifting assassin-species!), swords - and swords wih special powers. What made it amazing is to bring all of this into an intriguing SciFi setting with different planets, space travel, different species and interplanetary politics. I would have preferred if I were able to see more of the world building. Mr. Baron describes several planets and their life forms and plant life, but I could not get a sense or picture of any of these planets, life forms, or plant life. The main character travels in a spaceship from planet to planet, but I was not clear on how the spaceship operated or what it looked like. A sci-fantasy adventure across space, with magic, starships, sword battles, treachery, deadly beasts, and, of course, a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm.

The Wampeh Ghalian do not take sides in confrontation or war, although several times it is referenced that due to the Councils overwhelming corruption, the Ghalian’s have been known to act against the Council, work for less etc, to disrupt Council plans, as they see the Council as a corrupt entity that should not exist. The audiobook’s narration is expertly performed by Eric Bryan Moore; I have reviewed a few of his other narrated audiobooks. I enjoy listening to his voice and he easily becomes the main character’s voice. He does an exceptional job voicing the many different characters and creatures we find in the book as well. The volume is consistent, there were no audio artifacts that I recall, and no mistakes in swapping character voices which has been a common issue with some narrators. I look forward to hearing the other audiobook in the series and am happy to see Mr. Moore a part of it. I was given a free copy of The Interstellar Slayer: Space Assassins 1 by Scott Baron and Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. 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.”