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5 Works 124 Membros 9 Críticas

Séries

Obras por G. T. Almasi

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Conhecimento Comum

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male

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Críticas

A nice mix of alternate history and a first person shooter video game. There were a few parts that felt a little repetitive but nothing which took away from the enjoyable read. Kick ass female lead character doesn't hurt either.
 
Assinalado
cdaley | 6 outras críticas | Nov 2, 2023 |
Hammer of Angels - Pub 2/25/14. Sci Fi & Fantasy 4 Stars
I would like to thank NetGalley and Del Rey for granting me the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Though I received the e-book for free that in no way influenced this review.

WARNING: If you haven't read Blades of Winter yet, do not read this review, as there are inherent spoilers for book one!

In G. T. Almasi’s thrilling alternate reality, the United States, the USSR, and the Republic of China share a fragile balance of power with Greater Germany, which emerged from World War II in control of Europe and half of the Middle East. To avoid nuclear Armageddon, the four superpowers pursue their ambitions with elite spies known as Levels, who are modified with mechanical and chemical enhancements.

Nineteen-year-old Alix Nico, code-named Scarlet, is a kick-ass superheroine with killer Mods and an attitude to match. She’s considered one of America’s top Levels, even though her last mission nearly precipitated World War III. So now Scarlet and her new partner, Darwin, have been sent to Greater Germany to help sow the seeds of anarchy and prevent Germany’s defection to Russia and China.

But where Scarlet goes, chaos follows—and when her mission takes an unexpected turn, she and Darwin must go ever deeper into enemy territory. As Scarlet grapples with a troubling attraction to her new partner, explosive information comes to light about the German cloning program and one of its prisoners—a legendary American Level who just happens to be Scarlet’s father.


This book picks up right where the first one left off, propelled into action like a bullet being ejected from the chamber. The cliffhanger ending at the end of Blades of Winter is resolved/answered within moments, and it is an answered that works very well within the story. I'm not going to lie and say it shocked me, as it didn't, it was what I expected, however that find nothing to lessen its impact.

Scarlet works with Darwin as her IO now, and struggles to come to terms with the loss of her former IO and lover Trick, while dealing with a growing attraction to Darwin. That alone is enough to spin a girl's head, but the most recent mission is more than a handful. Scarlet, Darwin, Raj and others head over to Europe to help foment more social unrest between the enslaved Jewish people and their overlords. Not too terribly hard a job given the large number of sympathizers to the cause, and the loosely organized Circle of Zion is taking all the credit for the Levels work, which is perfect for all involved.

Originally the Levels were sent in to stir up some civil unrest and make it so that Greater Germany had to ask for their assistance in suppressing the uprising. What the US didn't take into account was the amount of support for the anti-slavery movement, so they essentially started something that they no longer could stop. Yet it still served them well, for Greater Germany could no longer risk alienating the US while they were so busy with their own civil unrest.

While on one of their jobs Darwin and Scarlet get even more massive amounts if data on the cloning program, allowing the US to make great leaps forward. So it comes as little surprise that Scarlet is going to rescue her father, who was being held in a secret facility while they tried to map his brain in order to clone his mental patterns into one of the adult Gen-2 clones, since they reach physical maturity after only two years, yet remain two mentally.

Along the way Scarlet and crew pick up a new team member - sharpshooter Falcon. Falcon just happens to have been sent to kill Scarlet by Fredricks, who had found a way to trace all their movements, which explained why they were continually being assaulted before anyone should have known their location. There is more to Falcon then meets the eye, and he is a great character to add.

The question of cloning keeps raising the question of what it means to be human. Are clones human? Do they deserve all the same rights and protections as naturally born humans? Could they be created and just used to switch a sick, or elderly, person's consciousness into a healthy new body? So many moral questions - but no real time to deliberate given the stunning amount of action in this book.

Scarlet does some maturing, but is also facing more and more severe physical and mental health problems in the field. Though terrified of being benched even she knows that she is becoming more of a liability than an asset while in the field. I am sincerely hopeful that there will be more books in this exhilarating series. Not only is the series entertaining, but it also does pose some truly interesting questions about what defines us as human. And of course I want to know what will happen to Scarlet down the road - will she recover from her debilitating symptoms? Is there more going on to cause these symptoms than we are aware of? While there is still plenty of non-stop action in this book, there is also time for fascinating questions of ethics that relate to things in our current world. We don't need Scarlet's alternate history to find that we are facing many of the same questions and issues that Scarlet's world is being forced to confront.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Isisunit | 1 outra crítica | Feb 18, 2014 |
Blades of Winter - T. G. Almasi
5 Stars
In one of the most exciting debuts in years, G. T. Almasi has fused the intricate cat-and-mouse games of a John le Carré novel with the brash style of comic book superheroes to create a kick-ass alternate history that reimagines the Cold War as a clash of spies with biological, chemical, and technological enhancements.

Nineteen-year-old Alix Nico, a self-described “million-dollar murder machine,” is a rising star in ExOps, a covert-action agency that aggressively shields the United States from its three great enemies: the Soviet Union, Greater Germany, and the Nationalist Republic of China. Rather than risk another all-out war, the four superpowers have poured their resources into creating superspies known as Levels.

Alix is one of the hottest young American Levels. That’s no surprise: Her dad was America’s top Level before he was captured and killed eight years ago. But when an impulsive decision explodes—literally—in her face, Alix uncovers a conspiracy that pushes her to her limits and could upset the global balance of power forever.


Typically this is not a book I would grab and read as a first choice, or so I thought when I began reading it. However that changed as I got to know the characters and experience the re-envisioned world history that Almasi created for this story. Plus, the futuristic aspects, including body enhancements and modifications (not as we know them today, unless you are thinking of the Six-Million Dollar Man TV show) make for some great scenes and pose some very interesting ideas that are touched upon to a degree, but mostly just brought up and exposed for the reader to ponder at their leisure.

Alix, code name Scarlet, is the star of the show, but has some great supporting characters, including her Information Operator (IO) and lover, Patrick, aka Trick, code name Solomon. Raj is a great foil to Scarlet's wisecracking teenage antics, as is Cyrus, their Front Desk.

The meat of the story is Alix and Trick being tasked with tracked down her father's last job before he was killed eight years earlier. But recent discoveries by the duo uncover the fact that he is still alive, radically changing Alix's world. She had grown up worshipping her Dad, who was the top Level Extreme Operative (ExOp) in the program, to the point where they had to create new levels for him. Clearly combining that kind of star power with a child's parental worship is going to have some serious impacts on the child. At the age of twelve Alix is taken into the Training Program, right after her father is captured. She skyrockets through the training system, skipping entire sections, all thanks to the stories she grew up hearing from her beloved father.

This book is a fantastic blend of psychological thriller and emotional drama, replete with spies that have flipped, terrorists looking to end the world, human cloning, and so much more. It sounds like too much for one book, but everything flows so seamlessly that it works.

Although Alix is more of a shoot first & ask questions later hothead, she learns to control that much more thoroughly by the end of the book. She definitely matures, but she also pays a terribly high price for all of the stress she puts her body through, not too mention the psychological stress. Suffering a devastating loss at the end of the book, Scarlet is completely stunned when she returns to be confronted with a ghost from her past.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Isisunit | 6 outras críticas | Feb 18, 2014 |
Not badly written and full of action. It's an alternative history/sci-fi novel. It just was not for me. Some might like like it but it was almost like a comic book setting and I couldn't get past that aspect.
 
Assinalado
Fidget78 | 1 outra crítica | Jan 5, 2014 |

Estatísticas

Obras
5
Membros
124
Popularidade
#161,165
Avaliação
3.8
Críticas
9
ISBN
6

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