Rath's Deception

The Janus Group, Book 1

By: Piers Platt

Narrated by: James Fouhey

On the cut-throat streets of Tarkis, orphaned teens like Rath end up jailed...or dead. So when the shadowy Janus Group offers Rath a chance to earn riches beyond his wildest dreams, he seizes it. But the Janus Group is as ruthless as the elite assassins it controls. Rath will have to survive their grueling, off-world training, and fulfill all 50 kills in his contract before a single cent comes his way. And ending so many lives comes with a price Rath can't anticipate. It'll certainly cost him what's left of his innocence. It may well cost him his life.

©2015 Piers Platt (P)2015 Piers Platt

This is an action packed and unique novel.

Rath’s Deception by Pier Platt is the first novel in a series called The Janus Group. After becoming an orphan at a young age and fending for himself on the streets of Tarkis, Rath is recruited by the Janus Group to become a sought after intergalactic assassin. The contract is for 50 kills. If the contract assassin survives 50 kills, then he or she is entitled to 50% of the money that the Janus group made on that contractor's kills. It’s an enticing prospect, but intense prospect for a destitute young man who has never killed anyone. As Rath progresses through the grueling training and his kills mount, he becomes aware that there is something not quite honest about the Janus group. Simultaneously, the police are constantly on the hunt for a way to bring down the Janus group, which is essentially a group of highly trained and efficient murderers. Meanwhile, Rath must figure out a way to complete his 50 kills and retrieve the money that he was promised.

This is an action packed and unique novel. I really enjoyed every part of it. Rath is trained by the Janus group to become a killer, but he is still a sympathetic character. Rath is a determined, but ultimately becoming a world weary man, focused on this one objective. However, knowing his back story makes it hard not to like him. Meanwhile, the Group only seems to become more vicious and ruthless as the novel progresses. The police detective and reporter that are trying to track down the contract killers are an excellent addition to the story, because then the reader doesn’t have to hear about each of Rath’s kills and the story moves forward. I also really liked the little insights into the Janus Group’s operations that are revealed during Rath’s missions and the use of 3D printer-like technology. The one thing that I didn’t like about the novel was that it was hard to tell how much time had passed from chapter to chapter. Overall, it was fast paced and action packed story.

The narration by James Fouhey was well done. Each of the characters was distinguishable and the voicing fit the characters. The production quality was good as well. I would recommend this story to anyone who likes action packed stories about rebel assassins mixed with a police mystery.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

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REALLY BAD IT ENDS ON A CLIFFHANGER

Any additional comments?

A good fast paced romp for a Sci Fi, but is real bad it ends with no conclusion apart form you need to buy book two to find out how the story pans out. Rather disappointing.

great story

sets up one of the best series I've read. great story and characters. the development is fantastic and makes sense. so many good characters. read them all

Can't help but root for the "bad guy"

No spoilers here.

The science fiction here is interesting enough that I found myself trying to brainstorm ways to solve some of Rath's more interesting predicaments.

I find his conflict between morality and self-preservation to be compelling enough that I bought the second book in the series, but so far, Rath as a character is not particularly likeable if only because he's only interested in self-preservation. To be fair, he's shown flashes of concern for others, but circumstances simply haven't allowed things to develop further for him. He's a very flawed character and for that alone I am interested to see how his story develops over the series.

Interesting story and a good listen

This was completely different than I thought it would be from the description. I like the pace of the book and find it to be engaging. I like that the main character struggles with being an assassin instead of being the hard cold guy who justifies his actions in one way or another. The end of book one left several threads loose that promise an interesting next book. I will probably pick up book 2 when I catch up on several other series I'm behind on.