In Mercenary’s Child we mainly follow Janus, a young man from the slums of Cerberus Corporation. No one knows where he came from, as another girl in the slums, Clara, found him and raised him by herself. From the very beginning you can tell that Janus has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He does come off as arrogant rather than just being sure of himself and pretty early on we can see this getting him into trouble. Pretty early on in the book he is sold by the higher ups of the corporation he lives in to the ODIN mercenaries.

The world building in this book is superb, though it does take up a good chunk of the book. You can really understand what has happened in this sci fi/dystopian world to get it where it is today. Once he is with ODIN, there is even more layering of the world. The usage of references to mythologies (especially Norse in the case of ODIN) was also a great touch.

A good portion of the book is also Janus and his fellow cadets training and learning the ways of ODIN, but it’s a great way for them to build relationships and to figure out what each is good at. We see more of Janus being arrogant and over confident, and being warned about what such attitudes could do. 

There is definite growth in Janus and his fellow cadets as they go through training and their first mission, where things far larger than them are revealed. The way the story ends, you know some things that will probably happen in the following book, but it’s also a good ending that leaves the reader anticipating what will be coming.

Thanks to Vulpine Press for giving me a copy of this book. It’s out now, so be sure to pick up a copy of it sounds like something you would enjoy. Happy reading!