Shi: A Dark Adventure into Living Forever (Immortality Interrupted Book 1) has its good points and its bad. On the good side the story moves along and kept my attention as I wondered what Eliza would do, the group she served, and how she would extricate herself. On the bad side the story is ridiculous and the character left me cold.
Eliza made a very bad bargain 80 years ago. On the one hand she escapes murder charges and now gets to live “forever”. On the other hand her “forever” is contingent upon her always doing what her unknown bosses tell her to do, enforced by a drug, Shi, that confers youth and life, if she gets a dose every day. Dose Denial is a death sentence because this drug withdrawal is a killer.
Characters
Author Villon presents Eliza to us as a normal soccer mom, aside from her assassin skills, secret hideout and drug problem of course. Consistent with her “normal mom” persona, Eliza feels emotionally invested with her ex husband’s grandchildren, even though she knows none of them and detested her ex for dumping her.
Eliza is a murderer, a true villain, yet we somehow see her as likable and root for her to find a way to ditch the organization. She shows her selfish side when she idly makes a crack to her drug administrator about him skimming – despite knowing that such actions will cause the organization to kill him. She also will not give up the imitation immortality, and it appears she wouldn’t give up the Shi even if she could do so safely without dying 24 hours later.
Her character is inconsistent. Eliza has no reason to trust anyone associated with the organization but follows Asher.
Overall
I didn’t like the premise or the characters but must admit I finished Shi and enjoyed parts of it. I don’t intend to read the sequels. I’m curious how it ends but do not care what happens to the characters.
3 Stars
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