First Kill by Jennifer Fallon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
How do you kill with honor? When is murder not a murder?
In “First Kill”, assassin Kiam Miar will find out when his first assignment goes awry and he is faced with an ethical choice…as if assassins could have ethics.
And if he makes the wrong choice, he could not only lose his life but throw a good chunk of his world into chaos…
Fallon’s short story about an novice assassin who has to pass his final test by having to kill a person he once knew is quite expansive for a short story. In its 29-page length, it manages to have decent world-building (or lets you fill in details yourself by drawing on fantasy tropes) AND an engaging fast-paced plot. Since reading this short story, I have learned that it is part of a larger series, but it doesn’t rely on the world-building from that one. Back to the story – so Kiam is having a dilemma; he can’t go back home without eliminating the target and he can’t bring himself to kill that person. The twist is how he goes about doing both those things and I will let you find that out for yourself *wink*. Besides the rushed ending, this short story is otherwise pretty awesome!
Read it at TOR
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