Red Dust

Gods & Assassins, Book 1

De: Frank Kennedy

Narrado por: Maxwell Zener

Fallen gods with a taste for murder. A criminal syndicate. A secretive desert town.

Ex-god Royal has a bone to pick with the human race. In his previous form, charismatic Royal and his surly partner Moon all but saved the forty worlds of the Collectorate from destruction. Their reward? Desert exile on Azteca to live as humans. No public gratitude. History rewritten.

Seriously. Doesn’t anyone respect a god?

Royal and Moon intend to leave their meager existence behind someday and recapture the old glory (random galactic chaos), but building an interstellar criminal network requires millions of credits. Assassinating the enemies of the Collectorate’s paranoid President pays well, yet the jobs are few.

Circumstance brings them to the tiny town of Desperido, where life - and a world of secrets - plays out beneath the desert’s red dust. Royal, ever the shape-shifting visionary (narcissist, some might say) conjures an exciting new path forward. First, the former deities will have to deal with enemies in their midst as well as the Horax, one of the planet’s most powerful criminal syndicates.

Prepare for a wild ride with a healthy dose of snark in the opening stanza of a five-book serial, “Gods and Assassins.” Pistols draw, rifles blast, traitors abound, conspiracies arise, wormholes open, and whiskey flows.

©2023 Frank Kennedy (P)2023 Frank Kennedy

I Enjoyed This!

This book was a pleasant surprise. I struggled with the beginning because of the world building and hard sci-fi aspects, but I stuck with it and it was worth the effort in the end. In the far distant future, two former gods are hired as assassins and the story revolves around their shenanigans and schemes. I particularly enjoyed the not overbearing Latin/Aztec flavor but what really made this book work was the author’s skill at character development. Even though there are a fair number of characters, they are all well described and memorable, even when they get killed off. The imagination and creativity it takes to craft this kind of tale, seasoned with just the right amount of snark is to be admired. Clearly this is only the start of a series as the ending was left so open, but this will likely not be the last Frank Kennedy book I’ll be reading.

Good action story

I loved the world building and think the characters were interesting and it kept me interested all the way through the story

Dark & Involved Fantasy

This was my first experience with Frank Kennedy's work, and it was interesting. Royal and Moon had once saved the worlds of the Collectorate, but instead of being rewarded, they were forced to live in exile on Azteca. Royal, along with his comrade Moon, had a plan to take back their glory, but they needed to accumulate great wealth in order to finance their plans. The worldbuilding was complex. There was plenty of action. My issue was that the characters were too one dimensional. Maxwell Zener's narration was great, and his performance added to the entertainment of the story. I was given a free copy of the audiobook, and I have voluntarily posted this review.

Action packed and entertaining.

Part one of a five part series.

Interesting. Entertaining. Action packed. Western vibe. Vivid imagery. Superb character development and world building.

Royal and Moon have no moral compass. Compassion and empathy are not in their lexicon. They used to be “gods” but were brought down a few pegs some twenty years before the events of the first part of their present story. Now they operate as assassins for hire. The plot of the story unraveled slowly. At the end of part one, there are still a bunch of unanswered questions. Definitely will follow this series to the end. Highly recommend.

A cocky, snarky attitude.

It isn't this book's fault, but this just isn't my genre. Such a crazy, complicated world. It took a while to layout the world and the circumstances. I did really enjoy the cocky, snarky attitudes. The various secondary characters. The relationships, or the lack there of.
I was gifted an Audible version of this book from the author through Story Origin. The narrator had the laid back attitude of our hero. (Not sure I should call him that.) And presented this story very well. 5 stars for him.