Dawn of the Assassin (vuoden 2019 painos)

That was a wild ride, just when you get settled into a situation you get hit with a sharp turn. The hits just keep coming one after the other leaving the reader in shock. I am eagerly awaiting the sequel. ( )

I received this book as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

I really tried to finish this book but just couldn't. I couldn't for a lot of reasons. Most of the time it felt like a summary of a novel and much of the dialog was clunky. Honestly, it felt like a first draft.

But the main problem I had was with the development of Diegert and his motivation to become an assassin. I understood it on an intellectual level, (his home life, bullying, resentment, etc...) but the author didn't really do anything to make the reader feel it.

I genuinely enjoyed reading Dawn of the Assassin. Although some parts moved a little slow for me, you can't help but get wrapped up in Diegert's life, and cheer him on, even with deadly stakes. From a life of struggles to excelling, Diegert's story is absolutely captivating. If you enjoy thrillers, you'll definitely want to pick up this one! ( )

I found this book to be a mix of good story telling with periodic bouts of disjointed right turns that didn't feel like they fit. Kind of like talking with someone with tourrette's. You're discussion is going along and then it seems to be interrupted by a bunch of loud and unexpected utterances.

The book did a pretty good job of keeping my attention, but there were strange changes that really didn't seem to fit with the character or the storyline. Most thrillers like have plenty of issues if you stop to think about them, the problem I feel with this one was the story itself would make you stop and think 'why would he do that? or Why would they ask such a thing to be done? That hurts the story itself, and the more it happens the worse it is for the story. My best guess is that the author (or his editor) had a rough outline that "had" to be followed, and needed to fit it in a 150 pages. So instead of guiding the story so parts would make sense, they'd just put a couple extra kinks in the line to 'make' things bend to the outline.

Still debating if I want to try book 2 in the series or not. I think a good editor could take the story and make it work without loosing anything that it does have, I feel there is a lot of potential hear, but someone left a lot of money on the table. ( )

There are a few things that I enjoyed about this book. First is the overall story. I enjoyed the author's theme and the way that he gets straight to the point about what drives the main character. Second, I love the gore and guts of the fight scenes. You can definitely tell that the author has a background in anatomy and physiology because every fight scene or assassin kill is expertly described, much to my enjoyment.

The issues that I have are with the way the story is told, character development, and plot holes. This book would be amazing if the author took the time to spread out character development over a few books. Most people enjoy someone that has redeemable qualities, or ones that justify the character's motives. Albeit, David's motives are somewhat justified, the path that the story takes seems a bit far-fetched for a novice assassin. I wish that the time that was spent in the military would have been more in-depth. I would find David to be far more believable if his stint in the military was longer than the equivalent of a 5-minute read. Had he have learned and developed in that environment, then shipped overseas (where he went on a few missions or was in some expert training before being discharged) it would make the skills that he utilizes later in the book more believable. I found myself scoffing, saying things like "because everyone knows how to do that the first time". A sidenote/pet peeve: the author's main description of people was based on skinny or fat. There can be more descriptive phrases and attributes to describe most of the characters other than their build.

All-in-all, I found this book hard to put down. I was eager to find out what was coming next and my interest was peaked in many points. It did, however, slow down at times and seem unbelievable. I think that this could have made a great series if some of the points were addressed. ( )