The novel “Liege-Killer” by Christopher Hinz was published for the first time in 1987. It’s the first book of the Paratwa series.

When Paula and her son Jerem witness a brutal murder, it’s immediately clear from the way it was committed that the perpetrator is not a common murderer. Two centuries after the catastrophe that devastated the Earth, on the orbital colonies the memory of the terrible Paratwa killers has become a legend. More brutal murders confirm that a Paratwa is back in action.

Rome Franco, director of E-Tech, the organization that monitors technological advances to prevent them from threatening humanity, hopes to find in the archives dating back to the times when E-Tech fought the Paratwa something useful for the new situation. Documents about a cryogenic stasis capsule are found, and two people turn out to be there, Nick and Gillian, who could represent hope against the Paratwa.

“Liege-Killer” is the Christopher Hinz’s debut novel, in which he skillfully mixes various science fiction themes including some classic ones. There are orbital colonies in which it’s set and where the human species lives after the Earth has been made practically uninhabitable. The past is always at the center of attention also because of the presence of a villain with superhuman abilities as it was created thanks to genetic engineering. It’s a Paratwa, a creature who can use two bodies in perfect sync thanks to a telepathic connection and from childhood they are trained to use a deadly weapon called the Cohe wand.

The novel begins as a sort of mystery due to a brutal murder, and the search for the perpetrator is at the center of the plot. However, it’s much more because the Paratwa are remembered as brutal assassins, but an elite among them also possessed remarkable mental abilities that led them to create a regime and try to conquer the world. For this reason, from the beginning, between the memories of the past and the new murders, the reader can perceive a very strong sense of threat that immediately creates a tension in the story.

24th century humans are unprepared for such a threat because everyone believed that the Paratwa were completely eliminated. Hope comes when Nick and Gillian, two Paratwa hunters, are awakened from cryogenic sleep. Nick is very shrewd and Gillian has such a fighting ability that he can face a Paratwa. The two of them are supposed be the good guys, but the impression since their awakening is that they’re like two wolves among the sheep, and for this reason Rome Franco struggles to trust them.

The combination of the Paratwa threat, some moral ambiguity in Nick and Gillian, and various political problems in the colonies due to clashes among factions that have different agendas for the future further increases the tension in the story. “Liege-Killer” is certainly not short with its 400+ pages, but Christopher Hinz develops the plot in a way that maintains the tension and also offers a series of twists between surprises and revelations related to past and present.

The pace tends to be fast with a lot of action, sometimes frenzied and brutal in certain fights. The intrigues related to the politics of the colonies and the dialogues present in abundance are also well constructed, helping to maintain the reader’s interest.

The important characters have their secrets, for one reason or another, so they’re developed slowly, but in the end the characterization is generally good. An exception is Paula, who seemed to me the stereotype of the woman who always acts following her emotions, with no rationality, and ends up doing damage to herself and her son.

A theme present throughout the novel but not really developed in depth is that of technological and scientific development with the ethical and moral problems connected to them. There are factions that would like development without obstacles and others that would like to limit it. Christopher Hinz seems rather pessimistic showing a tendency towards the negative use of such developments.

In 2013 the author published a comic book version of this novel, initially with the title “Binary” and later with the title “Liege-Killer”. I only read the novel so I can’t judge the comic book version. In 2016 he published the prequel “Binary Storm“, which reveals the main twists of “Liege-Killer”, so you might want to read it after the original trilogy.

In the end, “Liege-Killer” is a compelling novel thanks to an interesting development of its main themes. It has its own ending, even if it’s open, so you can read it and then decide if you want to go on with the sequels. I recommend reading it.