Kill by Numbers
In the Wake of the Templars, Book Two
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Former assassin Raena Zacari thinks she’s left the past behind. The Imperial torturer who trained her is dead; the human empire is disbanded; and she is finally free.
But Raena is troubled by a series of nightmares that always seem to end with her shooting an ex-lover in the head. She needs to get her mind clear because there’s a flaw in the most commonly used starship drive—and the band of media-obsessed pirates she’s fallen in with is right at the heart of the controversy.
With humanity scattered across the galaxy, she’s going to have to rely on the alien crew members of the Veracity to help her put the pieces together. It doesn’t help that the Templars— wiped out in a genetic plague while Raena was imprisoned—have left booby-trapped biotechnology scattered across the galaxy.
Kill by Numbers mixes military science fiction with sweeping space opera that features aliens, androids, drug dealers, journalists, and free-running media hackers. Kill by Numbers is the second book in Loren Rhoads’s epic Dangerous Type trilogy.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rhoads's follow-up to The Dangerous Type is less grim than its predecessor, but also feels less polished. Raena, having exacted revenge for earlier slights, is serving aboard the pirate starship Veracity, working with the mostly nonhuman crew to help fight injustice. When a journalist named Mellix (an idol and former mentor of Mykah, the Veracity's captain) discovers a flaw in the tesseract drive a vital interstellar technology developed by the Templar race, which was recently extinguished by humans it plunges the galaxy into economic chaos. Raena, and eventually her former companions Ariel and Kavanagh, get pulled into the mystery, uncovering what might be a revenge plot from beyond the grave. While Rhoads continues to deliver solid action sequences, her prose falls flat. Clich d plot contrivances including a sparring scene filled with sexual tension feel forced and slow the pacing.