Space Assassins 1 & 2: A Space Assassin Bundle

Product Information

In the early years of the 41st Millennium, it was discovered that the Orks of the Roxanzand sector were rallying behind a powerful Warboss called Urgak the Unstoppable, who had set about gathering together Boyz and war machines from a vast area. Worse still, their Meks had begun construction of a colossal Gargant, which the Imperium couldn’t afford to ignore. Sure, being one of the deadliest assassins in the galaxy had its perks, but even the mightiest warrior could have a bad day. In this case, it was looking to be enough of them to fill an entire calendar.

The author took time to explain what a Ghalian assassin was and described their training program as the entire book revolves around these assassins. A Wampeh Ghalian has one different attribute which is also explained.There was far more at play than was apparent on the surface and Hozark would require all of his wits and skill to get to the bottom of it. And he most surely intended to do just that, no matter how high the body count. He just hoped to do so before more of his kin fell victim to the nefarious plot. Eric Bryan Moore did a wonderful job with the narration. His voice was smooth and was able to navigate well through the different characters adding depth in how he voiced them. When a Wampeh Ghalian uses their special ability, and feeds upon someone with Magic, drinking their blood, they take this magic, and they can pass it to the sword, imbuing the sword with power. 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.

This book will be included in my biweekly reading wrap up on my YouTube channel that will be published on March 19th. The Character work is just outstanding. Hozark, as the Wampeh Ghalian – the master Assassin, is brilliant. The captivating way in which he engages with his world is totally enthralling, and you find yourself glued to the book, unable to pull away. Hozark travels with a small crew, a pilot ‘Bud’, who helps him on missions, he is just hilarious. He is not a Ghalian, but having worked with Hozark, knows all about them. He has a co-pilot Laskar, who is a gifted pilot (the only reason they keep him around), but he has the common sense of a dead rat. The dialogue between Bud and Laskar is like a comedy routine at times, and keeps you laughing. There are some other characters, but I won’t discuss them so as to not give away spoilers. 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.This book kind of follows under it. There is this balance, we have the start where stuff doesn’t go as planned and there are some chapters of Hozark when he was young and just started training, which I did like to read about. He sure is an interesting character, does what he needs to do, ha some inner conflicts, and an angsty past which is always a plus for me. In book 1 Hozark had to complete a mission, and for that, he required a legendary Vespus Blade, and that was basically the plot of book 1, him hunting down and getting the blade and completing his mission.

For parents and younger readers, this book contains quite a bit of profanity (as with other Baron books) the farther the story progresses. This audiobook includes some light romance along with alcohol use, not uncommon in this genre. If you are at all offended by any of these, I cannot recommend the series. I was hoping to be able to recommend this for my younger readers, as I think many would enjoy the series, but I would have to say it is more geared towards more mature listeners. The first book in the new series, and the one we will be reviewing here, is “The Interstellar Slayer” which is more of a novelette introducing the series along with all new characters. This audiobook is about three and a half hours long, but it is a good primer to the new series. The first book in the series is designed to whet your appetite for what is to come in future audiobooks. I would highly recommend you listen to the “Dragon Mage” series prior to this one. Yet, it is good to know that this is a standalone series and because of this, it is not a requirement to know any of the previous series. I do like that having the extra knowledge from the other series helped me to jump right in and feel comfortable with the story. I do not recall the length of time between this series and “The Dragon Mage” series but I think of it as a prequel similar to the Star Wars series. The focus of this series is on the well respected and rightfully feared space assassins group called the Wampa Ghalian. These assassins are the best of the best, but powerful magic and hidden agendas will impact this mysterious assassin group and potentially change the future of these highly trained killers. I found it interesting to know this group is monetary focused, but they also have a moral code that supersedes any amount of financial offering. 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!! 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.This is a fascinating book, and the more you read, the more interesting, the more involved you get. Imagine if you will, tuning into a science fiction series halfway through episode 4 in season 2, where season 1 is when all of the relationships have been developed, high jinks have been had, histories are given, galaxy described etc etc, and you are trying to work out who, what, where, and why.