Assassin Rising: 2044 The Alien Gene Project is a fast-paced sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic novella introducing readers to Aero, an up-and-rising apprentice at the Assassin’s Core. Now someone has killed Aero’s mentor and it looks like the target has shifted to Aero himself.
There are elements of this story I absolutely loved! Right from the first sentence, the story grabs hold of you and takes you on a wild ride. That first sentence is indeed what convinced me to pick up this novella to read it, and here’s the sentence:
“Missing a kill shot is never a fortunate thing.”
From there I was swept up in the storyline, creative tech, and the action. I enjoyed details like this one, “she rubs on a measured dose of cyberskin and it forms and hardens, plugging the hole in seconds.” Assassin Rising is a fast read both in how short the novella is, but also in its built-in thriller-like pacing.
On the flip side, the fast pacing and short format left little room for character development or in-depth world-building; both are done, but on a superficial level, which left me emotionally detached from both the characters and the setting. There's almost a rapid-fire introduction of elements in a short number of pages, but none are really explored in depth. To really solidify these in the story I would love to see some additional details and expansion in these areas. Also, there were numerous errors in grammar, tense, and punctuation throughout, which was jarring when reading, and the story could do with another solid round of edits to correct these.
NOTE: This review is based on the version of Assassin Rising received for review, but the Author has indicated that a newly edited version is now available.
