To gain his freedom, all Desh has to do is carry out fifty kills for the Guild as an Interstellar assassin. If he succeeds, then he can retire and be set for life. If he fails, then the penalty is death as the Guild does not allow for failure for any reason. He has forty-nine kills so far, but the intel on the last target was wrong and he is two weeks behind schedule. Now he has to face local rivals who are also interested in claiming the reward and if they succeed, it will count as a very unwanted and final failure for Desh. Landing on the planet, he quickly locates the target, only to find that he is not the only one, on site, with designs on the bounty. If Desh, doesn’t think quickly, he’s going to lose the mark, his freedom and his life.

This is a quick short story, which goes to highlight the descriptive skill of the author in plunging the reader into a sticky situation and letting us watch as his protagonist figures it out. The plot is simply laid out, with the background quickly and neatly sketched in as part of the mission briefing. The descriptions and exposition is short but to the point and anything extraneous has been pared down, so only the key elements remain making the story feel a lot longer than it is. The character are vague as befits the story, but you still get a feeling of the risks and rewards for Desh and the reasons why he has taken this course of action. The formatting for the book was fine, I didn’t spot anything that took me out of the story and the excerpt for the first main novel works surprisingly well in making you want to find out more.

The story may be short, but it is well crafted and I was surprised by how much detail was in it. At the back of the book there are more details on the universe and the shadowy Janus group. If you enjoy this story and the excerpt, there are more books to enjoy from the author.

Overall, a quick, but well executed story, for fans of the genre and more.