This book is much less science fiction than it is political thriller. And it attempts to build up these political thrills by having numerous players in a power play, which basically comes down to “good vs. evil”.

Well, as it turns out, a lot of good people are facing down the enigmatic evil known as the U.S. government. It’s an amalgamated mass of liberalism. There’s Tasha, the reluctant lawyer with a brother killed in Afghanistan. And there’s Leo, the disaffected ex-CIA agent who falls in love with an Indonesian housemaid who hates working for a Korean diplomat.

All the same person, plus or minus some demographic details...

Don’t worry, there’s a time traveller with a gun who’s making sure everything that goes wrong still goes wrong! (OH NO!) Everyone can get excited about that, can’t they?

Well, actually, no. The key issue is Mullen’s style of writing. He is intent on creating a strong sense of realism about American foreign policy through long winded descriptions, and a hit man from the future isn’t going to change that.

Mullen does give the one unique character a lot time, even naming his chapters “Z” to demonstrate his aloofness. But in an attempt to portray this “murderer who ensures havoc” as a human being, he ends up being the same disaffected human being that everyone else is.

I think that Mullen paints himself into a corner with the “action”, as well. You can only have so many secretive relationships without the book feeling tedious, antithetical to the excitement Mullen was no doubt trying to create. There are brief snippets of organic emotion that were a delight to read, but they come and go far too quickly.

   -- Jason Luna