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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Amity Public Library | FIC FERRIGNO | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Ferrigno, R. 2008 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In the second book in the award-winning trilogy that began with Prayers for the Assassin, shadow warrior Rakkim Epps battles radical fundamentalist forces in a futuristic America, now a divided blood-soaked dystopia.
Author Notes
Robert Ferrigno is the author of five previous novels. He lives with his family in the Pacific Northwest.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Ferrigno fails to make the most of an intriguing premise in the second installment in his Assassin trilogy (after 2006's Prayers of the Assassin). In 2043, almost 30 years after a series of suitcase nukes destroyed New York City and Washington, D.C., the U.S. is divided into two major regions-the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt. Islam and fundamentalist Christianity have respectively filled the spiritual vacuum caused by the mass destruction and the subsequent imposition of martial law. The underdeveloped plot focuses on the efforts of master killer Rakkim Epps to keep a powerful weapon out of the hands of the Colonel, a leader of the Bible Belt. Apocalyptic thriller fans looking for a thoughtful look at a near future where radical fundamentalism reigns supreme may be disappointed to find, instead, countless scenes of excessive violence. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Biologically enhanced combatants beat the stuffing out of each other in a race to recover secret weapons buried in the final days of the good old U.S.A. in the second volume of Ferrigno's Assassin Trilogy (Prayers for the Assassin, 2006). Think things are bad now? Wait until you see the year 2043 when America has split into the Islamic Republic, the Bible Belt and Mormon Territories. The long threatened rise of sea levels has isolated the bulk of Florida; Mexico is nibbling at the border; and the geosynchronous satellites that made communications a breeze have been blown to smithereens in outer-space pile-ups. It is a gloomy world indeed. Black-robed fundamentalists roam the streets of the American Islamic Republic like Talibani on steroids, inflicting justice on the spot, and in the Bible Belt militias and gangs of thugs seem to hold the balance of power outside Atlanta, capital of the Christian states. Neither nation is capable of turning out the scientists or engineers needed to keep up their infrastructure, but they do know how to turn out splendid soldiers along the lines of superskilled Islamic assassin Rakkim Epps, who appeared in the trilogy's first volume. Rakkim, now middle-aged, would like some time to enjoy domestic life with his brilliant wife Sarah and little son Michael, but his president needs him to infiltrate the Bible Belt, where government forces secretly search for a bit of dark technological magic buried in a Southern mountaintop. Rakkim normally works alone, but on this assignment he is saddled with Leo, a brilliant but spectacularly na™ve Jewish computer nerd with no soldierly skills. The unlikely team infiltrate the Belt via the Texas coast. Deadly encounters pile up, Leo falls in love, a surgically enhanced sadist threatens at every step and, back in Seattle, Rakkim's family is in great danger from the black robes, and everyone is manipulated by an evil and immortal mastermind somewhere at sea. Overstuffed with disturbing imagery and not for the faint-hearted, but seductive and occasionally amusing in its gloomy way. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In the second entry in the Assassin trilogy (following Prayers for the Assassin, 2005), Ferrigno expands on his apocalyptic vision of America's future. In 2043, the nation is still uneasily divided into the western Islamic States of America, subject to the tyranny of Muslim fundamentalists, and the southern Bible Belt, which sells its assets to the highest global bidder but still revels in its down-home taste for firearms and alcohol. Now word has it that a Bible Belt warrior known as the Colonel is looking for an old superweapon produced by the former U.S. regime. Elite Muslim warrior Rakkim Epps is dispatched to find and retrieve the weapon in the company of a sheltered 19-year-old savant who has been physically enhanced to the point where he can download massive amounts of data through his fingertips. Infiltrating the Colonel's camp, Rakkim finds the old soldier to be an inspiring and caring leader of men preyed upon by an unsavory inner circle, including his sexually voracious wife and his sadistic right-hand man. Rakkim orchestrates a daring search-and-destroy mission, pitting key Bible Belt factions against each other. The savvy Ferrigno keeps the plot moving even as he takes time to build a preposterous yet intriguing version of an America undone by its own extremist tendencies while also working in key contemporary touches, including a New Orleans long submerged by a category 6 hurricane. The result is a surprisingly satisfying mélange of blood-soaked action scenes, grotesque villains, and slyly subversive political commentary.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
It's 2042, and the United States has collapsed into an Islamic Republic and a Christian Bible Belt whose crazed leader is hunting for a major weapon hidden years ago by the old U.S. regime. Only Rakkim Epps of Prayers for an Assassin can stop him. With a three-city tour. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.