- Ferrigno, Robert.
Heart of the Assassin.
New York: Scribner, 2009.
ISBN 978-1-4165-3767-0.
-
This novel completes the author's Assassin Trilogy, which began with
Prayers for the Assassin
(March 2006) and continued with
Sins of the Assassin
(March 2008). This is one of those trilogies in which you really
want to read the books in order. While there is some effort
to provide context for readers who start in the middle, you'll miss so much
of the background of the scenario and the development and previous
interactions of characters that you'll miss a great deal of what's
going on. If you're unfamiliar with the world in which these stories
are set, please see my comments on the earlier books in the series.
As this novel opens, a crisis is brewing as a heavily armed and
increasingly expansionist Aztlán is ready to exploit the
disunity of the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt, most of whose
military forces are arrayed against one another, to continue to nibble
away at both. Visionaries on both sides imagine a reunification of
the two monotheistic parts of what were once the United States, while
the Old One and his mega-Machiavellian daughter Baby work their dark
plots in the background. Former fedayeen shadow warrior Rakkim Epps
finds himself on missions to the darkest part of the Republic, New
Fallujah (the former San Francisco), and to the radioactive remains of
Washington D.C., seeking a relic which might have the power to unite
the nation once again.
Having read and tremendously enjoyed the first two books of the
trilogy, I was very much looking forward to this novel, but
having now read it, I consider it a disappointment. As the
trilogy has progressed, the author seems to have become ever more
willing to invent whatever technology he needs at the moment
to advance the plot, whether or not it is plausible or consistent
with the rest of the world he has created, and to admit the
supernatural into a story which started out set in a world of
gritty reality. I spent the first 270 pages making increasingly
strenuous efforts to suspend disbelief, but then when one of
the characters uses a medical oxygen tank as a flamethrower,
I “lost it” and started laughing out loud at each of
the absurdities in the pages that followed: “DNA knives”
that melt into a person's forearm, holodeck hotel rooms with
faithful all-senses stimulation and simulated lifeforms,
a ghost, miraculous religious relics, etc., etc. The first two
books made the reader think about what it would be like if a
post-apocalyptic Great Awakening reorganised the U.S. around Islamic
and Christian fundamentalism. In this book, all of that is swept into
the background, and it's all about the characters (who one ceases to
care much about, as they become increasingly comic book like) and a
political plot so preposterous it makes Dan Brown's novels seem
like nonfiction.
If you've read the first two novels and want to discover
how it all comes out, you will find all of the threads
resolved in this book. For me, there were just too many
“Oh come on, now!” moments for the result to be
truly satisfying.
A podcast
interview with the author is available.
You can read the first chapter of this book online at the
author's Web site.
October 2009 