An Officio Assassinorum short audio drama from Ben Counter, Kill Shot sees Vindicare agent Deliva engaged in a mission to assassinate a heretic noblewoman, Seleuca Markovan. As she keeps her distant handler up to date with the progress of her mission, it becomes clear that she won’t be able to deal with Markovan with a single, clean kill shot, but will instead have to find a way to complete her task up close. Time is pressing, however, and Deliva knows she can’t let Markovan escape.
Continuing the trend of audios told only through dialogue, this is nevertheless quite exposition heavy despite the absence of a narrator, as Deliva describes what’s happening in quite some detail. Of course that helps the listener to follow the action, but it also feels a bit forced, while Deliva comes across as somewhat erratic and impassioned, which makes for plenty of drama but doesn’t necessarily suit the idea of an Imperial Assassin (although it sort of bears out by the end). The voice actors do their best with some slightly clunky dialogue, and the SFX work is typically good, barring some strange effects-laden voices towards the end which jar a little, but overall despite a late twist it just feels a little flat in both narrative and character.
Counter has silently become one of my favorite authors… i will see if i can get this.
To be honest, I’d recommend picking up Ben’s audio Heart of Decay over this – it’s only my opinion, but I’d say Heart of Decay is much more effective and enjoyable…
Will see. I read two novels by him last year and im looking forward to his galaxy in flames book his ideas seem to me to have been “out there” when i read the others, he writes chaos well… also have you seen BL are looking for a marketer? I saw on FB… imediatly thought of you… also followed ypu on there… if you arent already working for them that is🙂. Do i sound like a stalker? Lol
Haha, yeah I did see that. I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to go for that, but I hope they get someone good! 🙂