My first book by this author. This was a pulpy, action packed listen. Starts as a straight-up Hitman/Agent 47 copy, right down to the dehumanizing label (just with a letter instead of a number). It quickly becomes more of a Bourne action/espionage flick. Throughout the story, the sci-fi/cyborg vibe from Universal Soldier builds… along with the brain washing/forget your past life/humanity themes. This book doesn’t just riff on these tropes, however; there are enough unique twists to keep things interesting.
At times I found this a little too perfunctory, running through plots, action-sequences, and tech without taking the time to let us settle in and get to know the world, people, or tech (would have loved more detail about the tech-weaponry, for instance). And the absence of emotions for Agent G didn’t necessarily have me caring for him. But, bought on sale and clocking in at just over 6 hours, the bullet point tempo serves to deliver a B-movie good time.
Kafer’s narration is, as always, perfect for military style action, once bumped to 1.3x. Contains occasional F-bombs, fade-to-black sex-scenes, and assassin-level violence, torture, and amorality.
This was a good enough listen that I’ve wish-listed book 2 and will purchase when it goes on sale.