Agent G is one of 26 “Letters” employed by the International Refugee Society to carry out assassinations for anyone who can pay the right price. With no memory of his past, G is enhanced with state-of-the-art cybernetics, making him uniquely qualified with the right skill set to complete such dangerous and secretive missions. As G begins to unravel the mysteries of his past, he’ll be thrust into an unexpected journey through layers and layers of government and corporate conspiracies that will span decades, and will be fraught with new discoveries, vast numbers of betrayals, and an uncanny amount of death and violence.
“We don’t deal in moral ambiguities around her because we’re pretty much all black.”
On the surface, one may look at the cover and description for the Agent G series and expect it to be a fun, cyberpunk assassin adventure with explosive action and a fast-paced plot – and you’d be right; however, C.T. Phipps grabs hold of his readers on the surface and digs deep down into the characters’ motives, desires, and understanding of the world. This is not simply an action story; it’s commentary on the world around us and what it means to actually be alive.
The character of Agent G himself is a bit of an enigma. Made to feel no emotion, it becomes evident throughout the whole story that the more he experiences, the more he learns about his past, and the more relationships that he forms, the more emotion begins to seep through. This concept is most prevalent in his trust for pretty much everyone he works with. It would seem to be incredibly naive for a programmed assassin to trust anyone; however, despite what might seem to be unbelievable for such a character, it most certainly is believable – as this is what makes him unique, or dare I say, human.
I’ve read a few of Phipps’s novels in the past, and what I find most fascinating about his writing is how he’s able to seamlessly incorporate humor into any genre. The Agent G Omnibus has quite a lot of dark subject matter, but Phipps is able to lighten the mood at times with the meta inclusion of some of his other fiction as “B-entertainment” within the world of Agent G; or the witticism of many of the characters in the face of danger or certain death. It’s not easy to pull off humor in writing, but Phipps does so masterfully.
Mayhem, moral quandaries, and profound introspection make The Agent G Omnibus a must read. It’s a fascinating, action-adjacent look at the human psyche through the lens of non-human beings – or might they be human after all? Check it out and decide for yourself!
