Elite - Wanted

The final book in our Elite: Dangerous series of reviews - Elite: Wanted by the gestalt entity that is Gavin Deas (comprised of the talented authors Stephen Deas and Gavin Smith). For anyone interested, The Elite: Dangerous game is now available, having launched yesterday.

The story involves the intrepid crew of the Pirate ship "Song of Stone" who find themselves up against a feared and ruthless bounty hunter after a job goes pear-shaped. Even the infamous bounty hunter doesn't realise what it is she has gotten herself into though or what it is exactly she has been sent to retrieve.

What follows is a fast, frentic space opera that pays homage to Elite in the best possible way. I love that the authors have written about Pirates - after all they do play a large part in the games and it's a much more interesting perspective than many.

The story moves along at quite a rate of knots although the trade-off is a lack of fully-fleshed out characters, which do seem a little two-dimensional and it has to be said that the book takes a while to build momentum. Having said that the writing is intelligent, descriptive and imaginative. Stephen and gavin make a great team and I couldn't see the joins where one writer stopped and another began (always a potential issue when more than one person writes a story).

The stand-out parts of the book for me were the action sequences which are choreagraphed well, engaging and written with a great deal of flair.

Elite - Wanted perfectly matches the Elite Universe, it lives and breathes Elite and envelopes you in its embrace. Perfect for any Elite fan.