Review: Hammer of Angels by G.T. Almasi

About the book

In G. T. Almasi’s thrilling alternate reality, the United States, the USSR, and the Republic of China share a fragile balance of power with Greater Germany, which emerged from World War II in control of Europe and half of the Middle East. To avoid nuclear Armageddon, the four superpowers pursue their ambitions with elite spies known as Levels, who are modified with mechanical and chemical enhancements.

Nineteen-year-old Alix Nico, code-named Scarlet, is a kick-ass superheroine with killer Mods and an attitude to match. She’s considered one of America’s top Levels, even though her last mission nearly precipitated World War III. So now Scarlet and her new partner, Darwin, have been sent to Greater Germany to help sow the seeds of anarchy and prevent Germany’s defection to Russia and China.

But where Scarlet goes, chaos follows—and when her mission takes an unexpected turn, she and Darwin must go ever deeper into enemy territory. As Scarlet grapples with a troubling attraction to her new partner, explosive information comes to light about the German cloning program and one of its prisoners—a legendary American Level who just happens to be Scarlet’s father.

Add this book on Goodreads.

And here’s where I ramble about review this book

I was immediately drawn to the cover of this book. After I read the summary I got even more interested because the kickass heroine reminded me of Junco Coot, one of my favorite book characters ever. You know how I love me a kickass heroine.

The book, unfortunately, got caught in my blogging and reading rut and was pushed further and further down with the rest of my review pile. I picked it up a few weeks ago and finally finished it last weekend.

What’s it about?

The book is the second in a series. I haven’t read the first book but it didn’t really matter because the book can definitely stand on its own. It’s very fast-paced and super duper action-packed from the first page to the last.

Countries are at war. Honestly, I can’t tell you which ones are the good guys and the bad guys, and which ones are in line with who or what, but stuff’s going down and Armageddon is upon us. Or them. Whatever, the folks in the book. Then we have Alix Nico, a badass operative or spy who’s had more than a couple of enhancements and modifications in her system. This is a sci-fi so things are pretty high tech and world superpowers have super soldiers and are cloning people and building all sorts of crazy stuff.

Honestly, I really couldn’t keep up with the alternate world or universe that the book is set in. Countries are at war, etc., and Alix and her team are doing some fighting and stuff. I couldn’t keep up with the history and the political situation in the book, but it didn’t really bother me. The world was at war. It was all total chaos. I just enjoyed reading about the team’s missions.

I liked the kickass heroine.

The first few pages really stuck with me because we’re immediately introduced to Alix and what happened in the first few pages sort of set the whole stage for me. Those first few pages clued me in on what kind of person Alix Nico was and how insane the book was going to be. It also clued me in on the fact that Alix was starting to go a little cuckoo. All that’s happened to her and all the modifications and enhancements are finally taking a toll on her mind and body.

I read some of the reviews of this book and some of them noted that Alix was too unbelievable in the sense that she’s a very young soldier yet she’s the best and she can do everything and she never dies. Yep, she’s all that but it didn’t really bother me because I liked her kind of crazy. She’s a killer machine and she’s got issues and she’s going cuckoo just a little bit. She’s quite entertaining.

Overall, I enjoyed this book.

I enjoyed the action, all the crazy, the whole sci-fi stuff. I liked the part about enhanced soldiers. I also enjoyed the fact that clones of people they know just kept popping up everywhere. That, for me, was interesting. I don’t know if I’m really into the warring countries bit though. I didn’t really pay attention to the political situation, but it was an interesting take on the world superpowers.

If you like action-packed science fiction about super spies, you might enjoy this book. ;)

Note: I received a review copy of this book. All opinions and views expressed here are my own.

About the Author

G. T. Almasi graduated from RISD and moved to Boston to pursue a career as a graphic designer. While he built his design portfolio, he joined a band as the bass player, and wrote and designed the band’s newsletter. Once his career as an art director took off, he continued to supplement his design talents by writing copy for his clients.

As a novelist, his literary influences include Robert Ludlum, Neal Stephenson, and Hunter S. Thompson. He also draws inspiration from John Woo’s movies and Todd Howard’s videogames. Almasi lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with his wife, Natalie, and their lovably stubborn dog, Ella.

Follow the author on Goodreads.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.