Jim's Books

The Assassination Game

Alan Gratz

The Assassination Game
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ISBN: 9781442420588

Description

The rules are simple: Draw a target. Track him down and 'kill' him with a spork. Take your victim's target for your own. Oh, and make sure the player with your name doesn't get to you first. No safe zones. No time-outs. The game ends when only one player remains. James T. Kirk is playing for fun. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy is playing to get closer to a girl. But when a series of terrorist attacks rock the usually placid Starfleet Academy campus, it becomes clear that somebody is playing the game for real.

Reviewed on 18th July 2012

The fourth Starfleet Academy book based on the 2009 Star Trek film, The Assassination Game is the best yet. It follows the antics of all six of the main characters based at the academy as an unfriendly alien group visits Earth for a medical conference.

Alan Gratz shows himself off to be well versed in Trek lore, dropping in loads of references to the different television series while making them feel a completely natural part of the plot. As a long time fan this made reading all the more fun.

Although branded as a 'young adult' novel, the book deals with its characters far more as adults, and this makes them and the setting far more realistic. There is nothing in the book to alienate an older reader and I really respect the author's ability to write this way.

There are a couple of plot elements that have been used before, but the way the different strands are weaved together makes this an enjoyable story nonetheless. I've loved reading this entry in the series and look forward to Grazt being given more opportunities to write for Star Trek.

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