Eidolon – E.S. Yu

The book caught my attention with two magic words: assassin and asexual.

Eidolon is a sci-fi book about an assassin who was hired to kill a journalist investigating the company the assassin is working for. When he tried do his job, he was in for nasty surprise.

Vax, the assassin doesn’t seem to be hard-core and deadly. He seemed more like a harassed salaryman trying to get the job done and get the boss off his back. His boss being Atali Norman, CEO of Cyrex and one hell of a manipulative bastard. When Vax was confronting Atali, I was like, just shoot him already! Don’t talk to him, he will mindfuck you! Vax then proceeded to prove himself human.

Zai, the crusading journalist, is out to uncover the nasty secrets of bioaugmentation companies.I liked that he is very dedicated to his job. Meeting Vax was like meeting a ghost but that doesn’t stop him from involving Vax in doing what he set out to do. There were a LOT of complications, personal and otherwise but Zai was, if anything, determined to do good so he made it work.  

I think this should really be two stories. First is the sci-fi dystopian thread where humans were augmented with electronic parts for medical purposes or more insidiously to create super soldiers and spies.

This is a fast read and the writing was easy to go through.

I liked the world building here.  It was not bogged down by info-dump but relevant bits and pieces were mentioned here and there that mesh naturally to create a good picture of the futuristic city of Orphis. There was a big mystery and some action scenes. This part by itself makes for an interesting read.

The second part was a hurt-comfort story about a man trying to deal with PTSD, depression and amnesia. This had a more contemporary feel, the futuristic elements were insignificant and barely mentioned. I liked how the mental issue and the asexuality were handled. I felt the friendship more than the romantic spark between Vax and Zai. I think Vax is in dire need of friends right now although their relationship had a good potential to be so much more exciting had the story been solely about second chances and dealing with mental illness.

Overall, I wasn’t blown away but I liked the story. The sci-fi elements were done nicely, the mystery was intriguing enough to hold my attention, the premise was interesting and the prose is uncomplicated. However, the first part and the second part seemed disconnected and I would have preferred two different stories if not a better transition/connection between the sci-fi mystery and the drama part.

P.S.

I received a copy of Eidolon from Ninestar Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Rating:

Soundtrack: Someone Great
Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Album: Sound of Silver

(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41059670-eidolon)