Review – Half Life – SL Huang CC-BY-NC-SA
Available at Unglue.it, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo
Cas Russel is back, and she’s up to her old tricks, in SL Huang’s novel, Half Life. She’s still a thief, “retrieving” items for people, regardless of who actually owns them. She’s still a math savant, using her remarkable talent almost as a superpower. And she’s still a young woman trying to learn how to be a good person, providing it doesn’t interfere with business. When the story begins, she’s gone sixty-three and two-thirds days without killing anyone. She thinks that’s pretty good.
Half Life is the second novel in a series by Ms Huang called Russel’s Attic. The first one, Zero Sum Game, I reviewed here not long ago. She’s already working on the next two. In Half Life her protagonist, Cas Russel, finds herself up to her neck in trouble. Again. The novel is packed with action as she tries to work her way out of it. It would be easier if she didn’t have to factor in caring about people and what happens to them. That didn’t use to be a problem, but she’s trying to be a better person, which keeps adding unaccustomed complexity to things.
Even worse is the fact that this problem involves a child, and Cas has a soft spot for children in trouble. This interferes with her normally reliably rational thinking, making things even more difficult. It doesn’t help that this beautiful five year old girl isn’t quite what she appears to be.
If you like action novels and/or characters who develop and evolve, then Half Life is worth your attention. The beauty of its Creative Commons license is that you can read it first and decide later if you want to pay for it.
Go ahead and download it. It won’t cost you anything and you might find you like it.
rjb
Discover more from Green Comet
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.