Feb 2022 READER Assassin’s Orbit by Appel

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

The February 2022 Reader Pick is Assassin's Orbit by John Appel. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
Golden Girls meets The Expanse with a side of Babylon Five

Murder forces unlikely allies

On the eve of the planet Ileri's historic vote to join the Commonwealth, the assassination of a government minister threatens to shatter everything. Private investigator Noo Okereke and spy Meiko Ogawa join forces with police chief Toiwa to investigate - and discover clues that point disturbingly toward a threat humanity thought they had escaped.

A threat that could destroy Ileri and spark an interplanetary war... unless the disparate team can work together to solve the mystery.

[Jim]

I just finished Assassin's Orbit and, while it did take me a while to get into it, I found it to be a well worth the effort. So many characters and so much action going on! I did enjoy the author's choice of haveing the main characters as older females. I assume that on this world life spans are much greater since they are involved in so much physical action. I think this story would appeal to a unique, more specialized audience, but others might be surprised if they give it a try.

[Leticia]

I started this, it surely begins slowly with a lot of detail on a mass murder. I'm not a very patience reader when it comes to too much showing and slow plot development. Lets see how this goes.

I don't care much for the writing style.
One of the phrases:
"Meiko woke in dim light, feeling warm and soft. She felt soft, warm air around her face and bare forearms, with a soft, warm blanket tucked round her body."
That's a lot of useless repetition.

[Betsy]

I'm also finding it a slow start. Hard to keep at it.

[Leticia]

I think I expected something else from this book when I nominated it. I like my space opera to be more about space travelling, and more sci-fi.

[Betsy]

After taking a break from this book to finish a nonfiction I was also reading, I came back to this one and I'm glad I did. It was better than I expected. Lots of action. Several major plot twists to keep things interesting. And, although I usually don't like multiple point-of-view this worked pretty well. I really loved that the main characters were all "mature" women, with all of our aches and pains and crotchety character. And I think there was plenty of sci-fi. Lots of interesting technology that the characters all take for granted, without too much exposition of how it worked. It was fun.