This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Widowmaker Unleashed
Series: Widowmaker #3
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 180
Words: 56K
From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog
He was the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, the consummate killing machine, a man known only as the Widowmaker. Now, after a century of being cryogenically frozen, Jefferson Nighthawk has a new lease on life–and new enemies who want him dead…. Jefferson Nighthawk has been awakened from his frozen sleep, his deadly disease cured. But although he still has the experience and instincts of the legendary Widowmaker, Nighthawk is now biologically in his sixties. His reflexes slowed by age, looking only to live out his days in peace, he decides on a quiet retirement on a Frontier world. Easier said than done. For while Nighthawk lay in cryogenic sleep, his two clones were killing in his name, leaving a trail of vengeful enemies in their wake. Nighthawk has one advantage: no one knows who he is just yet. But once word gets out that he’s back, every assassin on the Frontier will be out to make a rep by gunning him down. Suddenly the Widowmaker has only two choices: pick up his weapons…or face death again–and this time for keeps.
So instead of changing his name and looks, he creates a third clone and personally trains him. This still doesn’t take enough heat off of Nighthawk, so he and the young clone stage the elder Widowmaker’s death in an epic showdown, one where Nighthawk almost does die. Now the world thinks he is dead and the younger Widowmaker can make his own name while Jefferson Nighthawk can live out his days in peace on some dirtball of a world.
Reading my review from ‘14, I mentioned how short this felt compared to the previous stories about the Widowmaker. I realized this time around that is because this is novel is simply a collection of serialized stories instead of being one long drawn out story. Yes, it is all connected, but it is very much compartmentalized. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you are aware of it.
Man, the original Widowmaker is a jerk. At first it is understandable. He thought all his enemies were dead and now he finds out his clones have made him a bunch more, that HE has to deal with. But then his mule headed refusal to do anything but stand and duke it out just got my back up. Because he almost whines the entire time about it. If he had immediately gotten a new identity and a new face (which would have been wicked easy when they were rebuilding him from the ravages of the eplasia), none of it would have mattered.
Of course, we as readers get some cracking good action out of it, so don’t take my complaining that seriously, hahahaaa. So, he’s a jerk. But my goodness, he’s a wicked smart jerk. He’s learned over his lifetime and he puts that learning to good knowledge here.
Much like Santiago, this book was supposed to be the end of the Widowmaker series. Santiago was supposed to be a standalone and the Widowmaker was supposed to be a trilogy. So there is one more adventure for the Widowmaker. But which Widowmaker? I can’t remember, so it’ll be like a brand new book to me.
★★★★☆
No comments:
Post a Comment