Widowmakers

The Widowmaker #1-3

by Mike Resnick, Jim Burns (Illustrator)

The Widowmaker - He was the consummate killing machine, the most famed and feared bounty hunter in the galaxy--Jefferson Nighthawk, the Widowmaker. Nighthawk has been frozen for over a century, awaiting the cure for a deadly disease. Cloned as a 23-year-old man, he is sent to hunt down and kill a notorious assassin. He is cloned again and then again to complete two more missions...dont miss this sci-fi thriller!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

597 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Michael "Mike" Diamond Resnick, better known by his published name Mike Resnick, was a popular and prolific American science fiction author. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He was the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He was the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and was the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.

Reviews

[Michael Sypes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each of the the individual books in this collection is only worth two stars, but the whole benefits from synergy, and I wouldn't recommend reading one unless you want to read them all.
This is real "turn-off-your-brain-and-enjoy-the-ride" kind of fiction. The story doesn't even need to be Sci Fi, even though cloning is an important part of the plot. If it weren't for that, the books would read like a cheap Western. Every planet is like a small isolated town, the hero is a famous gunslinger, yada-yada-yada. You can almost hear Morricone playing brass flourishes in the background as you read.
The characters are two-dimensional cardboard, the world sense is enough to get by. Subtract a star if you want something serious.

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This volume combined three novels of a series, which I had thought was Space Opera. Unfortunately, it turned out more Western-in-Space.
On top of that it's central character grated on me; seeming at first smart with hidden character, he soon devolved until super stereotype of the manly man, who is still immature enough that he can only react with his secondary brains.
DNF halfway through the first installment

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of three stories about a humanlike killing machine. The Widowmaker is a professional assassin who is repeatedly cloned.