7.08.2009
The Automatic Detective
by A. Lee Martinez, 317 pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: A
Put this one on your summer reading list, scifi fans. 'The Automatic Detective' is the perfect summer read. Fast-paced (after a slowish start), action-packed, amusing in its premise and corrupting of standard detective tropes, no demand for previously read backstory or deep thinking, and not extraordinary length at ~300 pages.
It's kind of like your stereotypical gumshoe story, except...
the protagonist is a red robot designed to destroy humanity, who starts out as a cab driver.
His best friend and fellow cabby is a massive, sentient gorilla.
The setting is a techtopia called Empire City, home to humans (mutant and normal), robots (servile and those with a 'free will' glitch), and your usual dystopia mess of lowlifes and toxic waste.
Oh, and his love-interest is a knock-out blonde gal with genius mechanical skills and a thing for robots...
The whole story begins when our protagonist, Mack, makes a perhaps ill-judged intervention into what he thinks is a domestic dispute at his neighbors' apartment. I'd tell you more but really, you should just read it :-)
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: scifi, media: book
