Alien Assassin

The Human Chronicles #2

by T.R. Harris

Adam Cain is an Alien with an Attitude...


Navy SEAL Adam Cain finds himself attempting to make a living the best he can in the alien universe he's been dropped into -- as an assassin! After all, with his kick-ass attitude, Superman-like strength and instinctive hatred for aliens, he's a natural at it.


As a Human among aliens, he's stronger, faster and tougher than just about everyone -- and everything -- he encounters. In this reality -- Adam is the Superman!


Alien Assassin is a whirl-wind adventure of incredible space battles, shoot-outs with galactic criminals, and even a love interest that is ... well, a little different. And as all of this is going on, the political forces of revenge and 4,000-year-old grudges converge on The Fringe Worlds. But even as galactic forces close in on Adam and his gang, there's one message that all the aliens begin to Don't Mess With The HUMANS!


If you haven't read Book The Fringe Worlds, it might be a good idea to pick up a copy. Book Two carries the story along swiftly. The Saga Continues...don't be left behind!


All the books in Part One of the Saga are now available on Smashwords.com, Amazon.com and other ebook outlets.


Book 1: The Fringe Worlds -- available NOW!
Book 2: Alien Assassin -- available NOW!
Book 3: The War of Pawns -- available NOW!
Book 4: The Tactics of Revenge -- available NOW!
Book 5: The Legend of Earth -- available NOW!

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Military Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 24, 2012

Reviews

[QS · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide if this book is actually better than the last one, or if I'm just becoming immune to terrible books with how many I read last month. Or it could just be that ANYTHING seems good when you're sitting in your calculus class and hating your life.

A lot of my complaints from the first book remain, though. The aliens are, uh, let's say disappointing, his grasp of science seems handwavey at best, and Adam is still in asshole.

So let's focus on the "asshole" comment for a moment, shall we? Well, first we should probably add that all of the humans are assholes: both Adam and his new girl friend Sherri feel absolutely no remorse for the death of the aliens they refer to as "friends." Because they're aliens, see, and not native to the planet Earth, and so they can't have any strong feelings for the things. Or something. I don't even know; I was too busy eyerolling at that section to really pay attention. I suppose, in a way, I could see how Harris can come up with that, especially since the author was a military man whom I presume had seen some actual battles. From what I understand, people who are forced to fight in wars often stop thinking of the "other side" as people, they're just enemies. Which, okay, I'm not going to argue with that--but to declare yourself to be a friend to someone, and then have little to no reaction to their death? That is Not Cool. Adam and Sherri, you are assholes.

Second asshole move: Adam has been in the alien society for all of, what, three months? And as soon as he meets a female human being, he has sex with her. Lots of sex, from what I understand. And Adam doesn't seem to have a single thought about his wife and daughter back on Earth the entire time. How is this even okay? Okay, people cheat on each other all the time. I get that. What I don't get is how a man who wants to talk as if he's devoted to his lovely wife and lovely child will have sex with another woman without feeling the slightest built guilty over it. The only hint to his having any thoughts about his wife and child is that he'll only have sex with Sherri, not anything serious. So it's okay, see, because he has these primal urges or whatever, and heaven forbid he have to go three entire months without acting on them. You can't possibly blame him! He's just a man!

...Yeah, so that bit pissed me off. Anyway.

Riyad. Riyad was...less of a caricature this time? But he did such a complete turnaround as soon as [SPOILER] his pirate army was destroyed. Suddenly, he doesn't care about taking over the galaxy? He feels embarrassed by the idea he had when Adam and Sherri sort of mock it? Yeah, no, not buying it.

I will, however, say that I was quite enjoying Harris' little plot twist. I'm genuinely curious as to what's going on with the Klin and the second-generation humans, and actually want to see what happens in the next book. Of course, this curiosity is utterly ruined by the fact that I despise the main characters. I want to see what happens with the plot twist, but I don't want to be in Adam's head for the adventure. What a dilemma.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less Than Expected

The second book failed to hold my interest. Rather than writing a compelling or intriguing storyline, this book relies on fast conflicts with extreme violence. Along with the destruction, the author resorts to negative profiling based on contemporary anti-Muslim sentiments and throws in a bit of gratuitous sex, apparently for no reason. Frustrating for me and I quit at about 60%. End of the series, as far as I am concerned.

I’ve read reviews which contain positive references to other works by this author so, based on those comments, I’m going to try at least one of his earlier series.

[Michael Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reluctant four stars. Nine monthhs have passed and Adam Cain is making a living as an assassin, thanks to his great strength, speed and smarts. His boss is killed by another assassin, an Earth woman.
He having killed her boss, they join up, and later are joined by the pirate chief, an Earth person too, who has lost his fleet to the Juirians, masters of most of the galaxy who have decided the Earth people are too dangerous and that Earth should be destroyed as soon as they find it. The book ends with the good guys and the bad guys finding the location of Earth.

[Ruth Marchese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but frustrating

This was a very interesting 'space opera', and it would have been very fun had there not been so many grammatical errors. Would it kill T.R. Harris to have his work edited? Incorrect tenses, pronouns, and words abound. Convoluted sentences leave one wondering if there is any editing at all. I'm no English major, and I'm trying to get over it to enjoy the story..... but PLEEEEASE don't make it so hard!

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will not be continuing this series. I find the author's philosophy that killing is acceptable if a) the victim is weaker than you are, or, b) that the victim is different from you in some way ("alien"), quite distasteful.

[Suki Rickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 2

Book 2 was a fun read and has an interesting concept. The characters are well developed and the plot is put together as well. There where a few errors throughout and some of the information was repetitive. I look forward to the next book.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 29%
Book one was just good enough and interesting enough to read this book. This book up to where I stopped was repetitive and boring. The parts with Adam Cain being the best parts until the introduction of the female human. She brought the book down even lower, pass.

[Josephine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dialogue is bad at times, story could be more interesting

[Carl Warren Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Cain, superhero

New to me, T.R. Harris has created a new universe, and in Cain a new hero. Looking forward to the third installment in the series.

[c · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I’d give this series another chance since the first book was kind of lame. Nope, still don’t like it.

[SLAM · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Shallow pulp fiction. Macho xenophobic superman. Main character is a navy seal…but very unbelievably written.

[Red Tide · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fast read, for the bus

It's a fast read and the aliens are fun for the most part. The action scenes almost all have flaws in them. Read them fast and don't think, you'll probably enjoy the rush.

The story has a lot of holes in it. The humans, two men and a woman are a joke. The Americans are both blond. The Lebanese is an Islamist terrorist, of course. You'll get no more character development after that. Humans killing aliens or just watching them (we're talking about their alien friends) die with no emotional response is normal for these humans. The Seal says that a dog has more connection to him, than any alien sentient. He also refers to all the varied species as aliens, even addressed some as alien. Also they all stink. I kept wishing that character would just die and let the story move along. He doesn't yet, but fingers crossed.

The Klin are a weird little race. The other aliens are fun to read and have recognizable motivations. I agree with the reader who summed it up as a good bus, park or beach read. I'm thinking about reading the third book. The aliens must have some awesome nefarious plan brewing. Here's hoping the Seal gets eliminated (talk about the writer's take on american soldiers. it's not even a thinly disguised presentation of the racist motivation of the modern american soldier). Wow!

[Lisa Hapney · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I've become engaged with the story itself. It's really a lot of fun, but the proofreading is not good. In some places the editing is so bad that you have to go back to see how the paragraph fits together. I'm not a big stickler for a small mistake here and there, but suggest the author invest just a little for some copy editing. That being said I have thoroughly enjoyed the story. It's a great adventure and moves along at a good pace. The story is engaging and the characters have really rounded out with the second book. Adam Cain has become more and more interesting as has his unexpected companion who leads the Fringe Pirates and we've gained a lot more story of what's going on in the universe. If not for some really big editing errors that made me stop where I was in the book to figure out what it was supposed to say, I would have given it a 4. Since I've already started the third book I have to say I've enjoyed the series, but like the reader to be aware of the drawbacks as well. If you like a good adventure, this installment in the series will be happy to carry you along if you have a little patience to get through the rough spots.

Originally posted at http://tjsbookblog.blogspot.com/

[J.R.C. Salter · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, the decision Adam takes to be an assassin in the first book seemed a little rash to me, but putting that aside, in this book, he tries to make a name for himself in his chosen career. With his special abilities and training, he is able to be quite successful.

However, despite the title, this isn't really about his job, this is a continuation of the previous book, and after a relatively eventful but slightly underwhelming opening and middle, we get an epic space battle with Klin, Juireans, and Pirates. It's a momentous event for the series and is very exciting.

However, just like in the last book, there's far too many info dumps. In fact there's more here. I'll estimate that around a fifth to a quarter of this book is made up of unneeded descriptions of alien abilities, histories, personalities etc. as well as drawn out summaries of the last book. I know a person would understand the book better if they knew the previous story, but that's why series are numbered, and no one in their right mind would read number two before number one, so these summaries are superfluous.

So, all in all, it is at times an exciting adventure, but too much waffle and filler.

[Per Gunnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is slightly longer than the first one but not by much. Adam’s quest for returning to Earth continues from the first book and, not surprisingly, he leaves a trail of dead aliens behind him. As with the previous book this is a light but fun read.

There are some twists in the plot that makes it interesting and Adam’s alien stomping rampages are as fun as ever to read. Some things are a bit silly of course. For example, if you were a human on the run from almost everything, would you charge into bed with the first other human you saw within minutes of meting her, especially one that just tried to kill you?

The book ends having built up quite a few loose ends obviously wanting you to pick up the next one to see how it goes. Personally, I have found these two books fun enough to read that I certainly will read the next one as well.

[Ron Towery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are we the Antha?

This series follows an old theme in sci-fi stories; are we humans left out here in this desert of stars alone for some sinister, strange, and utterly terrifying reason. Years ago I read a short story that describe a race so powerful that it took the combined efforts of numerous other intelligent star spanning species to destroy the one race, or so they thought. It turned out that the species had some how managed to survive. That species had clawed its way back from the stone age and the stars. What really frightened the starship commander that encountered the small explanatory ship, was that the beings on board could not be traced back to where they came from, and their technology rivaled the best. The "Antha" are us!!!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like science fiction with a futuristic military bent, especially if it involves future tech that I am able to wrap my head around conceptually and the author delivers on this front. The author continues his good job of continuing the storyline, but without having a spoiler appears rushed in certain parts and could have used a little more editing as well as a little bit of "hard to overcome" the b.s. factor on the whole prophecy thing. That part aside, I still think this is a good sci fi series.

I am looking forward to the next installment of the series - it kind of reminds me of the continuing episodes of Star Trek growing up - as well as to see where it leads and if the crew ever makes it home.

[Sam Jaffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My book The Alien Assassins by T.R. Harris is an interesting and heart pounding science fiction novel. It contains futuristic fight scenes and mysteries that will make you jump out of your seats. This was also one of the best science fiction books and series I have ever read. I feel this way because it contained lots of humor and had a variety of action and fighting. This book reminds me of Star Trek. It reminds me of Star Trek because it has a lot of cool technology and awesome fighting. It also uses a lot of different races of aliens like in Star Wars. This book and series was fun to read and I think that Sci Fi lovers should really give it a try.

[Debi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book II - Adam Cain, previously a Navy Seal on Earth, just wants to go home but until then he needs an occupation to survive in The Fringe, the part of the universe to which he has been abducted. Since he is stronger and faster than the average alien, almost to the point of being a "superman" (without being able to fly)and in addition to being a crack shot his natural choice is to be an assassin for hire.

This book is full of "gun" fights and space ship chases and just a darn lot of fun. I really like this series and can't wait for book III to come out this summer.

[Geoffrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was intrigued enough by the first book in the series to pick this one up. Right away, I had several issues with the book.

First, the font size and formatting used in publishing made the book look and read terribly on my Kindle.

Second, the first couple of chapters come of as simple wanton self-indulgence of the author.

By the end of chapter three, I just couldn't continue anymore. I archived the book and moved on to something else.

[Philip]

Okay, I guess I'll just have to admit that this series has become my shameful pleasure. True, the writing is barely above mediocre, the editing is lousy, and the characters are about as deep as a summer rain puddle. But...I can't help but enjoy this pure space opera and I want to find out, ultimately, where it goes.

There's room for improvement but, if Harris grows as a writer through this experience, there's certainly the potential to turn out some good science fiction in the future.

[Jeffrey Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another decent read TR

Another decent read TR

The story continues with an interesting new character. The author's aversion to words with two letters or less, proper verb tenses, sentence structure, etc. continues. If this is what came from the editor, I can't even imagine what the editor got. I will still continue to read the series, albeit with all the literary speed-bumps.

[Kartik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book rehashed a lot of the book 1 in the series. Since I read a bundle with both books 1 and 2, I found a large part of the first half to be boring. The author also rehashed a lot of the story from each character's perspective but the narrative form left a lot to be desired. Having said that the second half really picked up and was very entertaining. Overall, 3 stars.

[Brian Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Second book in the Human Chronicles series.
Although there was a lot happening, not much actually happened.

Adam Cain is still trying to find the location of Earth, but this book was really a series of him killing his way through the alien population as he worked towards that goal.

Some interesting parts, but not as good overall as the first book in the series.

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good followup to the first novel, as once again TR Harris is giving us a good romp through his universe. Unfortunately, he has yet to actually put much depth into said universe... but another one is coming, I will definitely read it.... whatever it is or isn't, I am finding reading it to be fun.

[Leo · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first book was fun. Pulpy, but fun. Unfortunately, the second one is more badly written, and stretches the credulity a bit too much.

[Steven R. Gustafson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast

This novel was a fast read. I stayed awake all night reading it. The plot was exciting. It also showed variety.

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the series

I love the series and can make enemies into partners for the greater good. And the galaxy is against them.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid but unspectacular.