John Zakour, Lawrence Ganem: The Doomsday Brunette

[Wabbit]

I was reading a review of a book and this sounds really fun. I think that I will buy it. Anybody ever heard of this? Not me!

The book is called The Doomsday Brunette. Great title and sounds so fun!

Here's part of the review.

There are some things that are just plain entertaining. Apparently, seeing a man hit/kicked/butted/etc. in the groin is endlessly hilarious. Seeing that ass who just blew by you at almost light-speed get pulled over is so satisfying. Flamingo chicks in the Spring bouncing up and down like gray popcorn all day has to provoke a smile. (Not everyone worked at Busch Gardens Tampa growing up? Never mind, then.) John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem's invention Zachary Nixon Johnson, the world's last surviving private investigator, is flat-out fun. Fortunately, he's returned in another hard-boiled adventure. Or lunacy, whichever you prefer.

Zach and his mind-linked AI, Harv, are caught up in a high profile case with complications that multiply as fast as the number of suspects. Who else would Ona Thompson, of the infamous Thompson Quads, call when one of her sisters drops dead during a dinner party at her hyperbole of a mansion? After all, she is the richest woman in the world, so hiring the top -- okay, only -- PI seems the logical reaction. Unfortunately for Zach and Harv, that is probably the last logical thing about this murder mystery.

Let's see... his employer and her sister are the result of cloning, have purple skin, include a superhero and a fairy queen. Poor Foraa, the anarchist, is that motionless, but attractive, heap on the carpet. The media which keeps a constant watch on the Quads is moving in for the scoop of the century. His relations with law enforcement could certainly use improvement. And Harv is making a few "improvements" of his own; his changes are enough to make a detective cry. Thankfully, they have the house computer, a sentient ape, and a decrepit butler to fill in the blanks. Now, if they would just fill them in truthfully. It doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon, however."

Sounds good, huh?

Regards
SillyWabbit

 

[Martin]

Sounds good? Sounds great! Good find!

If you like that one, I think you'll also like this one: Kil'n People by David Brin.

Here's part of a review:

Just about everyone's had a day when they've wished it were possible to send an alternate self to take care of unpleasant or tedious errands while the real self takes it easy. In Kil'n People, David Brin's sci-fi-meets-noir novel, this wish has come true. In Brin's imagined future, folks are able to make inexpensive, disposable clay copies of themselves. These golems or "dittos" live for a single day to serve their creator, who can then choose whether or not to "inload" the memories of the ditto's brief life. But private investigator Albert Morris gets more than he, or his "ditective" copies, bargain for when he signs on to help solve the mysterious disappearance of Universal Kilns' co-founder Yasil Maharal--the father of dittotech.

Brin successfully interweaves plot lines as numerous as our hero's ditectives and doggedly sticks to the rules of his created dittotech while Morris's "realflesh" and clay manifestations slowly unravel the dangerous secret behind Maharal's disappearance. As Brin juggles his multiple protagonists and antagonists, he urges the reader to question notions of memory, individualism, and technology, and to answer the schizoid question "which 'you' is 'you?'" Brin's enjoyment is evident as he plays with his terracotta creations' existential angst and simultaneously deconstructs the familiar streetwise detective meme--complete with a multilayered ending. Overall, Kil'n People is a fun read, with a good balance of hard science fiction and pop sensibility.

And? And? And?

Cheers, Martin

 

[Wabbit]

And, and, and... It Does sound good! I must admit, I am a sucker for blending noir detective stuff and SF.

If you like that kinda thing, Martin, you may like Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. maybe you have already read it? I Know it's been talked about on here before.

Regarding Brin, I have read a few of his novels before and liked them. It's good to find something else by him.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll add it to my huge "to buy that somepoint list!"

Regards

 

[Litany]

Kil'n People was awful. It was a nice idea, but done really fecking badly. Started out average and soon declined into drivel. It was as though the whole thing was just a way of fitting as many 'ditto' related puns into as small a space as possible. And then there was all that really dull angst-filled metaphsyical trash. And it had one of the worst endings I have ever read in my life, and I've read the Night's Dawn Trilogy. This book would have been so much better if someone else had written it. I just don't buy that the character who did what he did would go to so much trouble for so little point. It was daft. This book was so soul destroying that I had to take a break in the middle of it to read another book to cheer myself up.

 

[Wabbit]

But did you like it? Come on, don't beat about the Bush!

As for Night's dawn Trilogy's ending... Glad to see that somebody else thought it was RUBBISH. I have read so many reviews saying how great the ending was and its utter crap! He takes almost 4000 pages of plot and wraps it up with a small chapter. Not only that, the ending is just plain stupid! Anyway, I did love the rest of it. It's a crazy rambling wonderful mess

Did you like the rest of it Litany?

Regards
SillyWabbit

 

[Litany]

Did you like the rest of it Litany?

The rest of the book was absolutely fecking fantastic, which made the ending even more of a kick in the teeth. I felt insulted by it. It was a long book, but there wasn't a single page where nothing happened. The science didn't get overexplained, and wasn't so ridiculous that you couldn't suspend your disbelief. So you could really buy into everything that was happening. The characters were real, to the extent that I hated most of them. None of them were perfect. Joshua was a smug git who needed a good kicking, and his posh bint was an annoying trollop, but that was all part of how good a book it was. They weren't two-dimensional, perfect beings who knew all the answers and always did the right thing.

But that ending was sickening. I was really angry when I finished it. And as much as I loved the rest of the books, I can't bring myself to read anything else he's written, simply because of how awful that ending was. I was swearing like a pirate when I finished that book. Put me in a bad mood for days.

 

[Martin]

Kil'n People was awful.

No it is not - but there is no accounting for taste.

I am a sucker for blending noir detective stuff and SF.

Oh man, do I have the book for you!

It's one of my favourite books ever, and it is written by a fairly unknown British author by the name of Michael Marshall Smith. The book is called Only Forward, and it is just what you are looking for. I've written a review, right here.

Here's a part of a review:

Set in a stylized future City where individuals live in neighborhoods organically responsive to their moods and lifestyles, the story begins as a routine missing persons case for its narrator, Stark, an irreverent soft-boiled detective type who specializes in "finding people, or things." Stark's retrieval of Fell Alkland, a scientist who has fled the driven environment of Action Center for the placid Stable neighborhood, proves relatively easy. But pursuit by Action Center operatives and Alkland's crippling work-related nightmares force Stark and his quarry to escape to Jeamland, a collective repository of dreams and childhood memories that Stark appears to know very well, and to which, as he discovers only belatedly, he has been lured back deliberately. The genius of Smith's narrative is its casual revelation that the detective scenario and detailed elaborations of the City that pull the reader into the story are clue-filled set-ups for the real story of Stark's self-discovery in Jeamland. The story blazes with a visionary intensity that fires its imagery and fuels its premise that "once you've gone forward, you can't go home again".

Utterly fantastic!

Cheers, Martin

 

[Litany]

Now Only Forward IS a good book. It's a fecking excellent book in fact. Read it years ago, and it's one that I keep rereading. It's just a shame that MMS then rewrote it again and again under different titles.

 

[Wabbit]

Thanks for the recommendation Martin!

I have already read Only Foward and I loved it too!! I have read most of his "SF" works. I just have not got around to reading his mystery stuff. I will do that at some point I loved the city of the cats in Only Foward Fantastic!!

Regards
SillyWabbit

 

[Ashlea]

Sorry to be all American again, but could you please define "bint?"

 

[Litany]

Ummm, bint is an Arabic (I think) word for daughter, but in the UK it's a slightly less than flattering word for woman. When I use it, it generally means that I find the woman in question to be a bit of a moron, and so mostly I use it in the form of 'stupid bint'.

 

[Ashlea]

Thank you. That could be useful.

 

[Martin]

It's just a shame that MMS then rewrote it again and again under different titles.

I don't agree with you, yet again. I'll admit that there are similarities between MMS's Sci-Fi novels, but all three are highly original and have their own distinct ideas and themes. Can't deny that.

Cheers, Martin

 

[Litany]

Spoiler

Only Forward. A chap with a mysterious past agrees to help someone but can only do this by venturing into an alternate reality. Has issues with an ex-girlfriend. Has a friend who runs a bar.

Spares. A chap with a mysterious past agrees to help someone but can only do this by venturing into an alternate reality. Has issues with an ex-girlfriend. Has a friend who runs a bar.

They're the same book. It's the same bloke, with the same issues, having the same adventure. There are similarities with One Of Us too, only that one was really sub-par and not worth the reading of. Only Forward is absolutely one of the best books I have ever read, but Spares was a total piss take. And One Of Us was awful.

 

[Martin]

Agreed, some features occur in both, and both books have tons of features which I've never seen elsewhere.

I loved Spares, by the way, and really liked One of Us.

Cheers, Martin

 

[Litany]

He does have some really original ideas, which I love.

Spoiler

I'd love to be able to buy coincidences from a dealer. And to this day, whenever I'm in an airplane I stare, and stare, and stare at the sea in the hopes that there's someone down there who needs to get into Jeamland.

But I think, same with Night's Dawn, the more potential an author has, the more imagination and ability, the more insulted I feel when they just can't be arsed to do any better. Night's Dawn could have been fantastic, if the ending hadn't been a total cop out, and MMS could have been so much better if he wasn't so lazy with his plots and characters.

 

[Martin]

I see your point, I really do, and I hadn't looked at it that way. I just read the books seperately, with months and months inbetween, so the memory of the former wasn't all that clear anymore when I read the latter.

That said, I do think Michael Marshall Smith has a great talent, and I'm definitely going to buy any new stuff he publishes, especially if it's sci-fi.

Cheers, Martin

 

[Litany]

I thought he was switching now to crime, rather than his particular brand of sci fi crime? Maybe he'll be inspired to write some Scrumpypunk.

 

[Martin]

Yeah, he wrote 2 crime novels, Straw Men and The Lonely Dead.

Haven't checked them out yet, but will, sometime soon.

Cheers, Martin

 

[Wabbit]

Ditto. I especially liked one of us.

His book of short stories was interesting as well. I can't remember the name of it now. I don't have it any more. It appears to have gone walkies!

Regards
SillyWabbit