Tuesday, March 19, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via winning a sweepstakes presented by the publisher on Tor.com.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way.  

 The Perfect Assassin is the debut novel from author K.A. Doore, and the first in a new fantasy trilogy that continues later this year.  As you can guess from the title, it's another novel in an increasingly popular subgenre, books about assassins (noble or otherwise), featuring issues involved with the ethics of that trade.  In addition, it seems very much to be a novel ostensibly based upon common elements of Arabian* settings.  None of these setting concepts are in any way original, but they do form a pretty solid background for a writer to work in.

*I'm using "Arabian" here instead of "Arabic" because the book felt very much like a Western book playing with Middle-Eastern elements rather than a book truly building upon Arabic/Islamic Mythology.  

 The Perfect Assassin uses these setting elements competently to form a solid book, but never really goes much farther than that.  Our hero is enjoyable but not amazing, the plot is cohesive and works quite well, and the book certainly never drags and moves at a really nice pace.  On the other hand, the plot is somewhat predictable (the main twist you will see coming immediately) and while predictable plots are not always a bad thing, The Perfect Assassin doesn't have the other plot elements or character work to really get past that barrier.  Again, this is a solid book, done incredibly functionally, but it doesn't really go beyond that.

---------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
In the Desert city of Ghadid, order is maintained publicly by the city's leaders, the Drum Chiefs.  But privately, for many years, an order of assassins, or "cousins," would be secretly given contracts to kill some of those who broke the rules of the City, those for whom a public trial would be utterly improper.  But when a political conspiracy caused an assassin to make an unauthorized kill, the assassins' existence was revealed to the public, and the assassin - known thenforth as the Serpent of Ghadid, was no longer able to work her trade....and the Drum Chiefs stopped authorizing the giving of contracts.

Amastan is a young man who has just completed his training to become an assassin - but he wonders if he could really complete a contract and kill another.  But when he and a fellow cousin discover one of the drum chiefs having been murdered, it falls to him to find the killer, lest his master - the Serpent - be blamed.  But in the process of investigating (also not a skill of his) he finds a potential witness in a young man named Yufit, and against his better judgment begins to find himself more and more interested personally in the other man.

But the stakes are too great for Amastan to waste too much time falling in love, for it isn't long before others start to die - and this time, the victims are fellow assassins.  And each killed victim is killed in such a way to prevent the City's Marab from getting to the victim in time to calm their restless spirit, resulting in violent Jaani being out on the loose.  If Amastan doesn't find and stop the killer soon, not only will his own order be threatened, but the wild Jaani could threaten all who live in the city....
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The Perfect Assassin follows the perspective of Amastan throughout, although it develops a few other characters a decent amount.  It's world isn't particularly brilliantly done, but it's a perfectly fine world, with a desert city that has evolved various rules to survive, dangerous magical spirit creatures, and leaders and assassins in the background.  Everything fits and makes sense, allowing the story to take place in a world that's consistent and a solid backdrop, even if it's not necessarily a place I really feel a need to read more about.

Amastan is a solid main character himself, which is good since he's the main focus of the book, for better or for worse (see below).  The trained assassin who fears whether he can actually kill is not a new trope, but this book does it rather well, Amastan is a very believable and empathizable lead character.  And the romance he has with Yufit is rather well done, believable in how you can see how Amastan wants it and yet is afraid of it at the same time.  The secondary characters in this world are also solid, with Amastan's friend Menna getting the most development as more eager assassin-trainee, and their mentor Tamella being nicely done as well.

As for the plot, it's not the most unique of plots, but The Perfect Assassin moves at a really nice pace, such that a 360 page book moved rather quickly and never dragged.  Every piece tended to fit together nicely, and the ending - while hardly unpredictable - was definitely satisfying.  A sequel is coming out later this year - apparently the sequel was written first, explaining the tight release dates - but this book is entirely stand alone so there's no harm in diving in for fear of not wanting to continue with a longer series.

Unfortunately, The Perfect Assassin has a few issues.  First off, aspects of the plot are incredibly predictable - the reader will see the big twist coming about a 150 pages before it occurs, which is annoying because it just leaves the reader waiting for the other shoe to drop for a long time, even if it's set up well.  Secondly, perhaps more irritatingly than anything else, the book features a major secondary character, Amastan's friend and fellow cousin trainee Menna (who is also a Marab - the city's version of a spirit tamer) who is basically 100% more competent than Amastan, and who has every reason to be as directly involved as him - and yet she acts as his sidekick throughout.  It's at best weird, as if the book has a better choice of protagonist and doesn't take it for no good reason, and at worst it's annoying.

The end result is a book that's solid, but nothing more.  Not sure if I will check out the sequel, but it won't be high on my list if I have other books to start first, alas.
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