So, the introduction to the review copy of this book I received, written by Fonda, says that she was inspired to write this book as a result of a game where story ideas had to have the words ‘in space’ added at the end.
Result: Samurai in space!
The book is exactly that. Set on Aquilo, a frontier-type world where lives can be forfeit at the end of a work contract, Isthmus Isako’s occupation is to go and deliver the coup de grace to the unfortunate.
The book manages to take a weary and battered warrior who has been too long in her job and yet carries it with pride and honour. She is regarded by many as the best of the best, with a formidable reputation and someone who has trained many of those younger than her. But now – in her fifties, divorced and with a daughter becoming an adult, she is realising hat she is reaching her limit. Old wounds ache, she suffers with insomnia, her ‘traitorous knees’ are a sign that she cannot keep doing this job forever. She is thinking that when her latest long-term contract finishes, she may well take ‘the long walk’ out into the frozen wastelands outside the safety of her city’s atmospheric bubble and die.
These plans are destroyed when she finds that, without warning, Forest Greves, her CEO at Astrocom, takes the walk himself. Such events, though rare, would normally mean that her contract ends and she can get another or become a ronin, an assassin for hire, wandering the world without contract and therefore the target of anyone who sees fit to take her on.
However, she finds that her contract has been transferred to Savannah Minto – another CEO, at Satellite Communications – something unusual, but possible, and that she is duty bound to continue her work, despite this person representing everything she doesn’t believe in. They agree to do one more job before Isako retires with honour.
As part of her new contract, Isako is told of a situation that Minto would like to turn to her own advantage. Dragonfly Martim – a young man Isako trained as an apprentice – has gone missing. Isako feels guilty that she has not stayed in touch with him, even though he is now an atier (bodyguard) for a rival CEO at Southern Continent Gas Production, and vows to find out what has happened to him. Suspicion falls upon Martim’s ex-boss, Sandbar Uchi, director of SoCon GasPro and known for his ruthlessness, and Isako’s final task is to find out whether he is to blame or not.
Can you be sympathetic about a character that is at her most basic a stoic killer? It’s not easy – thoughts of cuddly Daleks from elsewhere show how this could all go wrong – and yet Fonda manages it.
With such a set-up it is clear that Fonda is deliberately using iconic tropes here – the assassin committed to her job, with considerable experience and respect amongst her peers, yet broken and weary. She follows her Code of morals and ethics, because that has been her life. Interestingly, even though her job is awful, it is accepted that ‘resigning’ people for the good of the colony has to be done, as a service – after all, old non-working members of society are just using up limited resources. “Resigning is just a part of life, the most meaningful way to give back to society when you’re no longer able to contribute in other ways” is a common maxim.
Of course, below the surface of this well-ordered and dutiful society, which feels very Blade-Runner-like, there is also an underclass here that Isako has to work with. Fonda explains this by using Rain Kob, an ex-colleague and friend of Isako’s, now a ronin, that Isako brings in to help her with her investigations. On Aquilo all is not as ordered and clinical as you might expect. The dynamic between Kob and Isako help show that Isako is more than her professional demeanour would suggest. The character is more nuanced than she first appeared to be.
The book takes a left-turn about halfway through, when the narrative changes from being focussed on Isako to being about Martim. Going over the same events as we have with Isako, his point-of-view gives a different perspective to what we have previously seen through Isako. It is a bold move.
Although the book has some well-written (and messy!) action scenes, I was pleased that they are not the book’s entire focus. Last Contract also shows that battles are fought not just with a sword, but also on the board – there’s a lot of corporate shenanigans that have just as much import as Isako’s more physical actions, even when they are bloodless. As well as this, the latter part of the book deals with the revelation of a science-fictional Big Secret that explains what has happened to this point and then goes on to deal with consequences of this event.
In summary, Fonda delivers what I expected from that introduction. Whilst the ending may seem a little too convenient, the book on the whole manages to combine sword-fighting combat with political wrangling to great effect.
It feels like The Last Contact of Isako is a book written for fun, a science fiction story that respectfully pays homage to the morals and ethics of old Asian culture, samurai movies and cyberpunk comic books. Whilst it is at times rather bleak, there’s no doubt that it is an entertaining read, with some interesting surprises along the way.
© 2026 Mark Yon
Hardback | Orbit UK Books
THE LAST CONTRACT OF ISAKO by Fonda Lee
May 2026 | 528 pages
ISBN: 978 035 6526 713
