Scan barcode
timinbc's review
2.0
There are two things almost guaranteed to bog down any SF story: clones/replicants and the use of unobtainium as a key plot element. This book has both.
As others have noted, we have cardboard characters that don't develop.
And there are other issues:
We start with a highly implausible machine that can do large-scale weather control and micro-scale cloning and memory management? C'mon. What we have here is just a magic box. It's Calvin's Transmogrifier made from cardboard.
The Ultras have antimatter fingers. Ha, yeah, right. Contained in fingertip magnetic fields, right? And not at all dangerous to the fingers' owners. And the fingers glow sometimes, and the plot advances. We're never told how. This is another magic box. In Edgar Rice Burroughs' work, this is like having our hero in a 30' pit at the end of a chapter, and next page it's "with a mighty leap, ..." AND it appears that this feature
only appears in the book at all so that the I-don't-have-a-plan guy can blow up the unobtainium
At the end, why does everyone "defending" the unobtainium do the "oh hai, what brings you here? And why do you have blasters UH!" thing?
If the aliens are so powerful, why choose such a stupid way to take over? Destroy a planet to create refugees they can adapt? Puh-LEEZE. They could just show up, destroy a city, and say "Dudes, we're in charge now, any questions?"
Am I the only one who very nearly gave up on the space-soap-opera thing of "oh, that wasn't A, that was copy 1 of A, except that copy 2 shot him while original A was around the corner" ? That ALWAYS happens when SF authors start replicating their characters. Having the copies be non-viable at least shows an appreciation of this, but it still doesn't work for me.
And the worst part was that some copies retained their own personalities, some had hardly anything, etc. There's an attempt to explain this, but no effort re WHY the bad guys would copy so randomly. What it does, of course, is allow the author to have each copy act exactly as required to advance the plot, without being burdened by such things as "the real A wouldn't do that, why would a copy?"
There are a few decent ideas here, but not enough. And Swenson can tell a story, no matter how implausible. I think he might could do a book with an experienced co-writer before soloing again.
p.s. Anyone think the author's dad was a hotel concierge? I kinda liked Joseph's "no sweat, I can do that, I am Concierge Man!" attitude.
As others have noted, we have cardboard characters that don't develop.
And there are other issues:
Spoiler
We start with a highly implausible machine that can do large-scale weather control and micro-scale cloning and memory management? C'mon. What we have here is just a magic box. It's Calvin's Transmogrifier made from cardboard.
The Ultras have antimatter fingers. Ha, yeah, right. Contained in fingertip magnetic fields, right? And not at all dangerous to the fingers' owners. And the fingers glow sometimes, and the plot advances. We're never told how. This is another magic box. In Edgar Rice Burroughs' work, this is like having our hero in a 30' pit at the end of a chapter, and next page it's "with a mighty leap, ..." AND it appears that this feature
only appears in the book at all so that the I-don't-have-a-plan guy can blow up the unobtainium
At the end, why does everyone "defending" the unobtainium do the "oh hai, what brings you here? And why do you have blasters UH!" thing?
If the aliens are so powerful, why choose such a stupid way to take over? Destroy a planet to create refugees they can adapt? Puh-LEEZE. They could just show up, destroy a city, and say "Dudes, we're in charge now, any questions?"
Am I the only one who very nearly gave up on the space-soap-opera thing of "oh, that wasn't A, that was copy 1 of A, except that copy 2 shot him while original A was around the corner" ? That ALWAYS happens when SF authors start replicating their characters. Having the copies be non-viable at least shows an appreciation of this, but it still doesn't work for me.
And the worst part was that some copies retained their own personalities, some had hardly anything, etc. There's an attempt to explain this, but no effort re WHY the bad guys would copy so randomly. What it does, of course, is allow the author to have each copy act exactly as required to advance the plot, without being burdened by such things as "the real A wouldn't do that, why would a copy?"
There are a few decent ideas here, but not enough. And Swenson can tell a story, no matter how implausible. I think he might could do a book with an experienced co-writer before soloing again.
p.s. Anyone think the author's dad was a hotel concierge? I kinda liked Joseph's "no sweat, I can do that, I am Concierge Man!" attitude.
kodermike's review
4.0
Let me first dissuade you - if you want to read this book because you expect Nick, Nora, and Asta to make an appearance, this isn’t that kind of Thin Man. Nor is this “Gumshoe - In Space!” - not quite. There is a certain homage to Dashiell Hammett in this novel, a flair of the noir in its tongue in cheek references to fedoras and trenchcoats, private investigators, and hunting down criminal masterminds in modern speakeasies. It is very much a science fiction novel, though, of that variety of thriller that was popular at the end of the pulp era. Good guys vs bad, agents on the run and the fate of society in their hands.
Set nearly a century away, humanity has made contact with two other sentient species, acquired FTL travel, and colonized other planets. A political movement has risen up that threatens the peace of the Union, and our two gumshoes, hired on as contractors by a government agency, are trying to track down the location of the leader of the Movement, the alien Helk known as Terl Plenko. Things go from bad to worse when a terrorist attack causes the moon Ribon to crash into the planet it orbits, destroying settlements on both worlds.
The mystery is light, but the tension is kept steady in this science fiction thriller. What may cause some issues for some readers is the disorienting switch in POV between chapters. The novel is written from the perspective of our two chief protagonists, but only one of them is in the first person. The other character’s story is written loosely in the third person. In the ARC, this perspective slipped a few times, and I really hope this is an artifact of the pre-edit condition of the novel and not something that made it to print. Because without that detraction, the novel was a lot of fun, fully earning the four stars I’ve given it. Although the post-climax epilogue ties off some threads while ignoring others, I think that’s just Swenson hedging his bets. I’m sure this volume will do well enough to garner more gumshoe stories set in his Union universe.
Special thanks to Tor Books, who allowed me to read an ARC of this novel on netgalley.
Set nearly a century away, humanity has made contact with two other sentient species, acquired FTL travel, and colonized other planets. A political movement has risen up that threatens the peace of the Union, and our two gumshoes, hired on as contractors by a government agency, are trying to track down the location of the leader of the Movement, the alien Helk known as Terl Plenko. Things go from bad to worse when a terrorist attack causes the moon Ribon to crash into the planet it orbits, destroying settlements on both worlds.
The mystery is light, but the tension is kept steady in this science fiction thriller. What may cause some issues for some readers is the disorienting switch in POV between chapters. The novel is written from the perspective of our two chief protagonists, but only one of them is in the first person. The other character’s story is written loosely in the third person. In the ARC, this perspective slipped a few times, and I really hope this is an artifact of the pre-edit condition of the novel and not something that made it to print. Because without that detraction, the novel was a lot of fun, fully earning the four stars I’ve given it. Although the post-climax epilogue ties off some threads while ignoring others, I think that’s just Swenson hedging his bets. I’m sure this volume will do well enough to garner more gumshoe stories set in his Union universe.
Special thanks to Tor Books, who allowed me to read an ARC of this novel on netgalley.
fathershawn's review
The continuity errors and forced errors and forced exposition kept pushing me out of the story.
jsmithborne's review
2.0
Meh. As lots of other reviewers have pointed out, there is not much character development and there are big gaps in the worldbuilding. The book also needed a heavier editing hand. Especially at the beginning there were all these info-dump paragraphs that kind of jumped around in a weird way, and at one point, 2 cops get out of a car and are described as male and female, but in the next paragraph both are referred to as "he." I like detective stories and science fiction, so I thought this would be awesome, but it just never grabbed me.
chukg's review
2.0
I did not really enjoy this book very much. It's SF adventure/spy mystery, but it really feels like it was written in the 60s -- it kind of seemed like an A. E. van Vogt book. The science is Star Trek/comic-book level technobabble, the alien names sound like jokes, and the plot is nothing special. Also the characters were pretty cardboard. It might make an okay movie or TV mini-series.
stevevig's review
1.0
I read the first few chapters of The Ultra Thin Man, and could find little reason to read more: The main characters were unmotivated and far from engaging; the setting verged on interesting, but the most interesting aspects went unexplored; the secondary characters were totally useless, especially the female characters; the antagonists seem to be simple anarchists.
edwindownward's review
4.0
A fast paced science fiction thriller written with a noir mystery feel woven throughout.
snowcrash's review
2.0
The premise of the book got me to pick it up. PI's in space, caught up in conspiracies. Sounds interesting.
But it never became interesting. The characters are thin. The aliens act like humans. I couldn't tell the Helk from the human he's running around with. The two main human characters come off as flat. The book flips between a first person perspective of one, then a third person for the other. It didn't work well for me.
There isn't a lot that is adequately explained. The biggest one is how do the bad guys know where to find the good guys. In such books, it is assumed this happens. But how? One of the alien cultures is barely mentioned, but they are the primary reason for the ability of humans to reach the stars with FTL travel and communication. More time is spent going through the effects of RuBy, the drug, than the feelings of the main characters. A big bang of a plot point should have rocked one of the characters, but very little is mentioned and he rolls on.
I wanted it to be good. I wanted to learn more about the worlds involved, with better resolved characters. But it is as thin as the title.
But it never became interesting. The characters are thin. The aliens act like humans. I couldn't tell the Helk from the human he's running around with. The two main human characters come off as flat. The book flips between a first person perspective of one, then a third person for the other. It didn't work well for me.
There isn't a lot that is adequately explained. The biggest one is how do the bad guys know where to find the good guys. In such books, it is assumed this happens. But how? One of the alien cultures is barely mentioned, but they are the primary reason for the ability of humans to reach the stars with FTL travel and communication. More time is spent going through the effects of RuBy, the drug, than the feelings of the main characters. A big bang of a plot point should have rocked one of the characters, but very little is mentioned and he rolls on.
I wanted it to be good. I wanted to learn more about the worlds involved, with better resolved characters. But it is as thin as the title.
ahsimlibrarian's review
4.0
A clever, fun debut science fiction/mystery novel with lots of twists and turns. Strong setting, great ending.
leons1701's review
3.0
Starts with a strong opening, then loses it's way for a bit. But the wrap up is worth it. A noir space opera thriller with hired detectives, mysterious aliens, conspiracies, hidden identities and all the other good stuff you'd expect. Swenson doesn't manage it quite as deftly as a more veteran author might have, but he does well enough.
More...