Pros
- Nice, self-contained story with a wrapped-up conclusion
- Interesting, seemingly dynamic story universe
Cons
- Not much information about what happened to humans during the war
Human for Hire Review
Human for Hire by T. R. Harris is a fun, action-packed adventure story about a human mercenary for hire in a galaxy that has discovered a newfound sense of freedom after a devastating war that between two powerful races left a power vacuum.
But there’s not much more information about the war save for some sparse mentions throughout the story. Perhaps more will be revealed later, especially with regards to the protagonist’s apparently active past.
Within this vacuum is a human with the innocuous name of Adam Cain, an ex-special forces military who now moonlights a mercenary for hire in a galaxy in need of mercenaries to provide policing, security, and other more nefarious tasks.
The story follows a fairly nondescript human, Adam Cain, in a galaxy occupied with aliens who are much taller or larger than humans. While height or size is generally an advantage when it comes to a fight, this general rule doesn’t apply to Adam.
That’s because Adam is a human who was born on Earth, a planet with a stronger gravity than most inhabited worlds, giving Adam and all humans, an inherent strength and advantage over their alien peers. So the first part of the book has sometimes comedic scenes of Adam bursting through thin walls and doors that would otherwise be fairly solid obstacles for natives. Such scenes are hilariously reminiscent of the Kool-Aid man barreling through a brick wall to the dismay and surprise of those on the other side.
Unlike many science fiction series where the stories leave readers with frustrating cliffhangers, Human for Hire takes the opposite approach by concluding the story and the job. Since Adam Cain is a mercenary, each book in the series can be a job or mission he takes on. Fans of such stories like Firefly should enjoy the same mechanism in this series.
There’s no real overarching antagonist yet, nor is there some galaxy-ending threat that the protagonist must stop. Instead, it’s one lonely human in a faraway quadrant of the galaxy accepting jobs and escaping from his past in order to survive.
The story universe is filled with interesting characters, including Adam’s client, a species with a symbiotic or perhaps parasitic relationship wherein the mature or second stage erupts from the back of the first stage. It’s a weird relationship, but such a relationship allows for some interesting turn of events in the story.
Where Adam Cain ends up next is anyone’s guess, but wherever it is, it’s bound to require the services of a professional soldier, and that’s bound to include a lot of action and suspense.
Human for Hire by T. R. Harris is an engaging space adventure story about a mercenary trying to find his way in a galaxy that’s ripe for change. Readers will enjoy the more episode nature of the series because of the main character’s job, as well as a satisfying sense of conclusion at the end of the novel rather than a sense of unfinished unease.
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