Places To Be, People To Kill

ASSASSINS: AN INTRODUCTION by Brittiany A. Koren

AH, THE ASSASSINS! Characters so well loved for their deviousness and slyness. So what do assassins do when they finally get that well-deserved vacation? In this anthology we will explore the places they visit, and go deep into the depths of their minds. What makes them the elite killers that they are? Are they misguided? Is it fear for their own or someone else’s life-kill or be killed? Or is it an occupation passed down from one generation to the next?

We’ll show you the events that lead assassins to be who they are: being in the wrong place at the wrong time; greed; love; or the chosen path of the honored sentinel or spy. We’ll show you that assassins are human just like you and me. They walk among us, never knowing, but always suspecting, that someone might turn on them.

Assassins come in all shapes and sizes, and one never can tell who the next great assassin might be. Some are witty and coy like Tanya Huff’s Vree, the sister in the Vree and Bannon team. And some are surprising, like the character in “The Hundredth Kill” by John Marco. We are fascinated by these people who live on the edge and in the dark. Life is too precious to be trifled with, and the assassin takes life very seriously-as in Jean Rabe’s “Hang Ten.” It is a duty in some cases, as in Tim Waggoner’s “All in the Execution,” and we also see it with Ed Gorman’s Aarak in “Drusilla.” Some assassins kill for acceptance-“Breia’s Diamond” by Cat Collins-or for love-Bradley Sinor’s “Money’s Worth.”

Others, however, try to start over, to leave that dark life behind as Jim C. Hines shows us in “Bloodlines,” but can they ever get away? Does their past life ever stop haunting them? Even in the afterlife, their services may be requested, as is the case in S. Andrew Swann’s “Fealty” or in a somewhat different fashion in John Helfers’ “Deadhand.”

And yet some not quite in the typical assassin mode, taking lives for reasons not their own, as in “Substitutions” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, are unlikely candidates for the role, doing what they must. Some may not even realize they could be a killer, as in Sarah A. Hoyt’s “While Horse and Hero Fell.”

Whatever their reasons, we continue to be entertained by their stealth abilities and put on the edge of our seat with the suspense of each new adventure. We hope you enjoy reading the tales from these authors about the cursed, the not so lucky, the hopeful, and the bred assassin. They’ve made me laugh, cry, and kept me up at night, afraid that I might be the next victim. But most of all, these authors have given life to incredible assassins and taken them to far away places where you’ll want to be-and to people to kill.