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Ross (3284 KP) rated Age of Assassins in Books

Feb 5, 2018  
Age of Assassins
Age of Assassins
RJ Barker | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Detective thriller in a medieval fantasy setting
I had heard great things about Age of Assassins and added it to my pile to read some time. But when NetGalley offered me the chance to review the follow-up Blood of Assassins before its release this month, it rocketed to the top of the pile.
I had no real expectations of this other than people rated it highly (which tends to make me more critical).
The premise was a little unusual for me - a detective thriller but in a fantasy setting. A young assassin in training, Girton, and his master are hired to find who hired another assassin to kill the heir to the throne. They then work undercover to determine who had the motive to kill the obnoxious heir. Girton becomes embedded within the squires and starts to see what a real childhood would have been like, growing up with other children rather than his master. His emotional frailty, alongside how hard he has to try not to kill them all and show how much more skilled he is than the bumbling, club-footed oaf he is presumed to be.
The plot itself is pretty much all revealed at the end with a Poirot-esque "I suppose you're wondering why I asked you all here" chapter, which I thought was a bit of a cop-out, more could have been hinted at along the way. Rather than the whole plot being revealed in a oner, people like to have enough to stitch it all together and I felt it maybe kept a little too much in the tank for the final scene.
I enjoyed it as a fantasy novel, though its scope was so much smaller than other books I have read recently, though the action scenes were well narrated.
As a detective novel, I thought it left a little too much of the reveal to the end and didn't reveal enough along the way.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Accountant (2016) in Movies

Mar 11, 2018 (Updated Mar 17, 2018)  
The Accountant (2016)
The Accountant (2016)
2016 | Drama
7
7.5 (36 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Really-not-that-bad-at-all action thriller with Ben Affleck doing a surprisingly good job of playing a brilliant accountant-stroke-hitman. The film kind of dodges around the implication that Affleck's character is autistic, but the inference is clear and while this is still Movie Autism (never mind the crippling downsides, you get super powers!!!), it is still sympathetic and has at least a few vestiges of reality to it.

The plot eventually ends up being completely gonzo, involving corruption in the robotics industry and duelling assassins, but the movie fends off the moment when you shout 'this is all utterly ridiculous!' for a surprisingly long time. Eclectic cast includes Affleck, John Lithgow, Jon Bernthal, and Anna Kendrick (who appears to be about three feet tall in a few of her scenes). A fun and engaging movie; not a particularly great thriller but all the peripheral weirdness keeps it watchable.