A sci-fantasy adventure across space, with magic, star ships, sword battles, treachery, deadly beasts, and, of course, a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm. The magic in this world was very fascinating. It made me curious to know more and more about it, but at the same time it seemed to be more than what the story required at this point which made it a little bit confusing. The Character work is just outstanding. Hozark, as the Wampeh Ghalian – the master Assassin, is brilliant. The captivating way in which he engages with his world is totally enthralling, and you find yourself glued to the book, unable to pull away. Hozark travels with a small crew, a pilot ‘Bud’, who helps him on missions, he is just hilarious. He is not a Ghalian, but having worked with Hozark, knows all about them. He has a co-pilot Laskar, who is a gifted pilot (the only reason they keep him around), but he has the common sense of a dead rat. The dialogue between Bud and Laskar is like a comedy routine at times, and keeps you laughing. There are some other characters, but I won’t discuss them so as to not give away spoilers.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. The image on the front made me think of the dark elves from R.A. Salvatore's books, while the setting is in space. In short, I went in without preconceptions and enjoyed the book thoroughly. I feel that this could be a five star book if it was better edited. There is too much repetition which becomes boring but it’s saving grace is the excellent world building and the good character depth. I certainly felt empathy for many of the characters such as Happizano Jinnik and Denni. This book feels like it should be longer. It's set up to be one of those long ass book with big sciencey words that I end up not remembering or caring to remember because they're so long and so many. But this book is nothing like that!Overall, I enjoyed this book especially the close relationship between Hozark, the centuries-old assassin, and Bud, the ex- space pirate, who had proven very handy during some of Hozark's previous missions, and Bud's newly introduced assistant-pilot who has yet to prove himself but was very confident of his skills. There is so much mystery, intrigue, captivating story lines as pieces on the board are moved around in this incredibly complex game on both sides. We see this all from Hozark’s point of view, as he looks on at what is occurring between not only the Wampeh Ghalian’s, but all the other different people in the Sector, and the Council of Twenty, and all of their interests.

ARC Review: Received for free via BookSirens for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you Scott Baron for the opportunity. I have not listened to anything by Eric Bryan Moore previously, but he did a great job with the Narration. He was clear and concise, so it was easy to understand and listen to him. He has a great range of voices, both Male and Female, and the main characters voice, Hozark, is exceptionally well done for this particular character. You can pretty well distinguish who is talking most of the time, but there are times it can be a bit hard to tell which character is speaking. If you enjoy coup d'é·tat stories and power struggles and sword and sorcery action in a slightly space-y setting, this book definitely is for you.Thanks to the Editor and BookSirens. I received this book in exchange for an honest review so here we go! I never had anything to do with the books once they left these shores, and it was always a surprise to see what Puffin had done. For example, the puzzle attached to paragraph 332 in Space Assassin was as much a mystery to me as to anyone else reading the book. It certainly bore no resemblance to the puzzle I sent with the manuscript. Lately I am really in the mood for a good SciFi story. Coming from reading a lot of Fantasy I was able to find quiet a few fun Space Operas, but nothing that really screamed Science Fiction Fantasy that I loved. The author took time to explain what a Ghalian assassin was and described their training program as the entire book revolves around these assassins. A Wampeh Ghalian has one different attribute which is also explained. With the earlier mission directive nearing completion, the current group will have to learn to get along with another newly added crew member. What makes their job even more difficult is that this new member does not understand the sacrifices made to bring him onboard and makes the other’s jobs much more difficult. It is nice to see some of the interaction and training the others take in befriending this member along with the investment of time and materials. Because of this, things begin to once again function like a precision time piece and the team is off to close things up.

The audiobook’s narration is expertly performed by Eric Bryan Moore; I have reviewed a few of his other narrated audiobooks. I enjoy listening to his voice and he easily becomes the main character’s voice. He does an exceptional job voicing the many different characters and creatures we find in the book as well. The volume is consistent, there were no audio artifacts that I recall, and no mistakes in swapping character voices which has been a common issue with some narrators. I look forward to hearing the other audiobook in the series and am happy to see Mr. Moore a part of it. As I said previously, the world building is just incredibly in-depth, but rather than being overwhelming, or losing you (as it can do in some books where there is just too much information), in this case, you find you get totally absorbed in it, and just want more. It is utterly fascinating, this world of assassins, and with each new revelation, several more doors open into this wonderous world. Demelza is another really captivating character, with her ability to keep up with the Masters, but having taken a bit of a different learning path than others. We get to learn more about her in this book.

Publication Order of Interstellar Slayer Books

The mythology and world building that has gone into this series is just incredible, there is so much intricate detail weaved throughout the story that just adds a whole extra dimension.

The Interstellar Slayer introduces us to a world where the science in science fiction is more or less replaced with magic! The universe has magic and projects magic all around!! Characters themselves have little to no magic, having to resource to devices that'll give them the powers!! Kudos to the author for maybe realizing this and bundling them so we got the whole series and more people made it to the end. Mr. Baron has a created a main character that is an assassin who appears to be powerful and overcomes any obstacle he faces to complete the assassination. As I read the story, I did not feel the main character was not facing any adversity and there did not seem to be any real stakes or danger. I thought the other characters featured are flat and not fully fleshed out and realized. The narrative, other than the situations stated above, is very interesting and it keeps up with the pace of the story, wich is FAST!! The dialogues are very straight forward and knowing the main character along the book you accept it as part of him and not a problem with the writing itself!!Sure, being one of the deadliest assassins in the galaxy had its perks, but even the mightiest warrior could have a bad day. In this case, it was looking to be enough of them to fill an entire calendar. Although the topic is death, there is no gore, and the "on screen" violence is action-style, and mostly fair fighting (if fighting a magically enhanced assassin can be called fair). And on the topic of sciencey words, I like that this mixes magic and science and that even then we aren't clogged up and made to feel like we know nothing. Scott Baron doesn't lose us with big words and long-winded explanations about the science and magic of it all, instead he keeps it simple and therefore let's me care enough to try and understand the magic system and science of it all. I like that, like that in a book that could've gone all the way with the fake science, it decided to keep it simple and understandable. This book starts out at a fast pace as Hozark, a Wampeh Ghalian assassin has started out on another contract but he is an observer for this one. As a Master Ghalian, he is one of the top five Ghalian assassins that assess the students they feel might be ready to take on contracts on their own. This is after they have had years of hardship and hard work to see if they have what it takes to be a Ghalian assassin. There was far more at play than was apparent on the surface and Hozark would require all of his wits and skill to get to the bottom of it. And he most surely intended to do just that, no matter how high the body count. He just hoped to do so before more of his kin fell victim to the nefarious plot.