Old hatreds die hard. Old love dies harder.
On the planet Rada, Meli Galdes’ family is of minor rank, and were relying on her marriage to Celino, the razor-smart, ruthless leader of the powerful Carvanna empire. When he abruptly breaks their engagement, he ruins her family and guarantees that Meli will never marry, as no suitor will oppose the rich and influential Carvannas.
But Meli has a rare, secret, lethal – and valuable – talent. As a melder of energy, she’s capable of severing anything in her path. So she “leaves” her family and trains to become one of the best and most lethal of assassins, all the while covertly guarding her family’s interests. Now she’s ready to quit; but she has one more assignment.
To kill the man who ruined her life.
Somehow, I missed the Kinsmen stories when they were first published. I saw them because the first two books and a short story have been released as a single audiobook, ‘The Kinsmen Universe‘.
This is an anthology edition of the Kinsmen Universe, which includes Silent Blade and Silver Shark, plus a new short story.
Family is everything. Talent is power. And revenge is sweet.
In a distant, future world Kinsmen – small powerful groups of genetically and technologically advanced families – control vast financial empires. They are their own country, their own rulers, and their only limits are other Kinsmen. The struggle for power is a bloody, full-contact sport: in business, on the battlefield…and sometimes in the bedroom.
‘Silent Blade‘ is the first story. It has me hooked on this universe
It’s sixty-six pages long; not quite a novella but long for a short story. It’s packed with action from the opening scene onwards.
I was intrigued by this world, ruled by the Kinsmen, an physically enhanced elite who compete with one another in family groups to hold on to and gain power, but, it was the characters who pulled me in.
Meli Galdes is an assassin who has decided to retire after having spent seven years killing for her Kinsmen family, from whom she is formally estranged. Then Meli agrees to take on a final assignment. I spent much of the rest of the story curious about why she did that and what her objective was.
Celino Caravanna is the young rising star of a rival Kinsmen family and Meli’s final assignment.
Of course, both Meli and Celino are beautiful, exceptional and lethal – this is an Ilona Andrews story after all, but this isn’t a standard enemies-to-lovers story. It’s more complicated and more original than that.
I admire how Meli’s backstory was revealed bit by bit and how I was kept guessing both at what she had planned and what she wanted to achieve.
The ending was very satisfying and left me hungry for more. Fortunately, ‘Silver Shark‘ is already waiting for me.
Mike Finn's Fiction 