Blades of Winter: A Novel of the Shadowstorm (edition 2012)

Blades of Winter is an interesting blend of science fiction, alternate history, and action thriller. It’s jam packed with fight scenes, car chases, blood, guts, and gratuitous violence, and the main character’s abrupt, dispassionate narration only makes the gory parts more disturbing. Overall, this book isn’t great literature, but it’s certainly an intriguing series opener. ( )

The writing style is like comic book heroes and the story provides an alternative view of history.

Alix Nico is age nineteen. She''s a rising star with ExOps, a covert organization to keep U.S. safe from its enemies.

She's given an assignment to try to find her father who was a top asset of ExOps. He was captured and thought killed. Now Alix must find if he's alive and what our enemies might be planning.

Advertised as a cat and mouse adventure, Alix is sent to various places in the world, meets the opposition and engages in furious battles.

This is a well written, intricately plotted story. Alix is a modern bionic woman who likes to kick butt. Science has enabled her to be able to dodge bullets and knock holes in cars.

The action comes together nicely at the conclusion. ( )

*Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

More like 3.5 stars, but I'll round up to 4.

Look at that cover! It's so cool. The story was very amazing as well. Full of action and adventure with a little romance and a great mystery.

The beginning of the story was sort of hard to get into because of all the information being given and the world building that was going on. And because this was historical fiction there were so many countries and names to remember. My pace slowed down whenever I had to flip back to double check names.

If you can get past the beginning which is chock full of information the story becomes very captivating. It has this really awesome mystery and a romance that didn't make me want to roll my eyes. The mystery was a good one because even though I had my guesses I was never 100% sure. Plus I kept changing my mind whenever another piece of the puzzle was revealed.

There was no insta-love which makes me glad. This was practically the opposite. Alix and Patrick have known each other for a long time now so the reader doesn't have to go through half the book reading about their relationship and them falling in love. Their relationship is already developed so we're reading about a more stable part of their romance. That might sound boring to you, but for me it's actually quite refreshing. I'm tired of reading about teens falling in love at first sight then always being insecure and jealous. Those are the characters that wouldn't know what love is if it slapped them upside the head.

So if you like action packed adventures then this is the book for you. If you don't mind going through a complex introduction then read this book because the story is very much worth the information overload. ( )

You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/09/blades-of-winter-shadowstorm-1-by-gt-almasi...

Alix Nico is only 19. This doesn’t keep her from an abundance of ass kicking, covert ops, black ops, and um, killing. Alix is an operative with ExOps, and her enhancements make her a pretty badass asset. It’s 1980, and Blades of Winter’s world is definitely a little to the left of ours, in terms of history. The Middle East and France are controlled by Germany and the Blades are determined to remove German control from their rightful territories. Shadowstorm has thus far been a pretty discreet battle between the Big Four (Germany, US, Russia, and China), but it’s about to come to a head.

Blades of Winter starts off with a bang, literally, when Alex takes a Job Number meant for a much higher, more experienced Level, and nearly gets killed in the process. She’s not what you call subtle, and successfully succeeds in angering the powers that be. She’s good, though, really good, and they need her. Turns out they’ve reopened the investigation into the disappearance and alleged termination of her father (Big Bertha), and it would take death to keep Alix away from this mission. So, armed with her trusty Lion Ballistics LB-505 (Li’l Bertha) that she inherited from her dad, Alix saddles up with her partner and lover, Patrick, and they head off to battle. And what a battle!! This mission is a globe hopping, blood soaked descent into hell, not only for Alix, but for her handlers. To say she’s a handful is a vast understatement. Capturing an enemy alive for questioning is terribly hard for Alix, since she tends to kill nearly every enemy she comes in contact with. Heavily augmented, she loves to use her bionic hand to actually reach into people and do damage. One memorable scene involves Alix, the enemy (his collarbones), a parachute, and the Eiffel Tower. That’s not the only memorable scene though. Alix is a tough-as-nails, borderline sociopathic, hot-headed, impulsive, somewhat emotionally immature killing machine.

She’s also a killing machine that terribly misses her father.

You must keep in mind that Alix began her covert ops training when she was only 12, and has never really been allowed to have any semblance of a normal childhood. The psychological aspects of this are staggering, and the author does a very good job of creating a portrait of a young woman whose emotional development has been effectively cut off at the knees. Corralling Alix sort of brings to mind trying to corral a room full of feral cats and while her impetuousness can be trying at times, there’s a hurting little girl inside of her that does come to the surface, especially when she’s with her mother, and these scenes did quite a bit to soften her character. She’s also desperately in love with her partner, Patrick, and poor guy, he has the patience of a saint when it comes to Alix, and he loves her too, no doubt about it. I’d say Alix could benefit from a hug (or 50), but I’d be afraid she’d rip my lungs out. Just sayin’.

The action is nonstop, adrenaline soaked, blood drenched and cinematic, and the fight scenes are some of the best I’ve ever read. Add to the mix a diabolical human cloning program code named Carbon, a possible mole (or moles) in ExOps, and of course, the investigation into what really happen to Alix’s father, and you’ve got an explosive first novel you won’t soon forget. Blades of Winter is complex and exciting, and the shocker of an ending will have you wishing that the sequel was at hand. I can’t wait for the next book in this series! ( )