She-Wolf and Cub

De: Lilith Saintcrow

Narrado por: Jessica Marchbank

A cyborg assassin opts to save—not take—her target's life, in this post-apocalyptic adventure by the author of Afterwar and the Dante Valentine series.

Her name is unimportant. She is her job: a liquidator. Deep in debt for cyborg modifications, the agent eliminates whatever target she's given. It's a relatively simple job—until now. Her latest assignment is to kill a child, and she can't refuse—because refusal means Dismissal, a fate worse than death.

Instead, the operative smuggles her target out of the city, away from his corporate caretakers. But little Geoff is a gifted, genetically engineered, profitable experiment, and everyone—bounty hunters, fellow cyborgs, brain-fried cannibals, and other monsters—is desperate to get their hands on him.

The agent may be practically indestructible, but she's about to test her limits.

Hell hath no fury like a mother protecting her own . . .

©2017 Lilith Saintcrow (P)2024 Tantor

Shades of Ultraviolet

“Abby mama?”
This reminded me of the movie Ultraviolet with Mila Jovovich, where an enhanced mercenary gets unexpectedly saddled with a kid that everybody wants for unknown reasons. There’s even a blood drinking angle, although not in a vampiric way. Unfortunately, without the visuals and sound effects of a movie format, this tended towards bland.

“I’ll kill him again.”
This was a decent enough YA story. There were some nifty cyberpunk concepts and an interesting post-apocalyptic setting, but I was left wanting for a better antagonist, suspense, and personality. The most detail is given to the tech, particularly the enhancements that make Abby and others so hard to kill.
The apocalypse has left most of the world in ruin, with giant worms and a Wild West feel to any place left outside of mega cities (maybe add a touch of Judge Dredd’s cursed earth to the feel of this, with Assassins/Handlers instead of Judges). Throughout the story, there’s only references to a villain. Cannibals and other groups attack, and are defeated with ease, often without the foes uttering a single line of dialogue, much less having a name or backstory. Even the basic motivation of Abby going rogue and bonding with a kid wasn’t convincing. The mildly emotionless narration didn’t help to bring the characters to life. Nonetheless, this was decent enough that I’d get the sequel.

⛔️ TWs: There were a few F bombs, indirect mentions of sex assault, and comic book levels of violence. Geoff goes by the pronoun of they, but it wasn’t too overdone.