(no subject)
Review by Andrew W. on February 22nd, 2012
Zach Hilyer ('Hil' for short) is an 'operative' working for the Thieves' Guild. He works in acquisitions, and always delivers his packages.
That is, he's one of the best thieves in the business. Until, one day, he comes out of a mission with he and his ship badly beaten up, another thief missing, his handler presumed dead, and worrying gaps in his memories of the mission...
Not knowing who to trust, Hil is told to find the missing thief, LC, and to retrieve the missing package. Along the way, he discovers that deception can run far deeper than he imagined.
The novel is interesting structurally, with short chapters, each starting with a short section of a long conversation between the mysterious 'NG' (New Guy) and 'the Man', the two people running the Guild. This conversation deals with the events of the novel in a retrospective manner, and so the main body of the novel details events you already have a vague idea of. Generally, this works - though occasionally, it does seem to spoil the surprise.
There does also seem to be an odd dearth of commas in places (for example, "He tried to twist round in the harness to check on the package but his neck resisted and a pain shot through his side with enough bite to make him straighten up and groan."), which does make the story seem a little hurried and confusing in parts. However, this may be a personal preference on the part of the author, and the story is generally pretty fast-paced anyway.
Overall, the story is intriguing (and has plenty of intrigue); the story ends with an obvious setup for a sequel, and as much is promised after the last page.