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pjonsson's review
4.0
Actually I cannot remember how long it was since I read a book that was not part of a series. I do not think it has been a deliberate choice from me to read book-series specifically. It just happened. Anyway, this is a standalone crime mystery in a futuristic setting.
I found this book quite good. Very good actually. It is not some vanilla science fiction story dressed up as a crime mystery. It is a good old-fashioned crime mystery that happens to transpire in the future and a good one at that. It almost starts of as a text book example of some how-to-write-crime-detective-mysteries basic formula with the hot lady walking into the not too busy lone private investigators office. The first couple of chapters made me think of characters like Mike Hammer and for me that is a good thing.
The story and plot that drives the book is solid. The book is overall very well written. The characters are not at all bad. There is no rubbish political preaching and the romance parts of the book (he is a PI so of course he has to pick up at least one girl) is just right and doesn’t intrude on the rest of the story.
The science fiction part of the book is also not allowed to intrude on the actual crime/mystery/investigation bits of the story. As I wrote this is a good old-fashioned crime mystery. When the science fiction elements comes more into play towards the end of the book they blend into the story in a natural way. Very well done as far as I am concerned.
If I should complain about something, just for the sake of it, would be that I would have liked the book even better if the main protagonist would have been a bit more “hardboiled”. He is no pushover but still, a bit more Dirty Harry style would have been nice.
Oh, yes, one more thing. Why is it so popular to invent German names in novels and why is it so unpopular to actually check if it makes sense. Bauhaus Gaststätte does not make sense. Gaststätte (which means hotel/restaurant) always comes first in German and even then, Gaststätte Bauhaus would only make sense if it was located in a place called Bauhaus or had some other relation to something else named Bauhaus.
Well, that was nitpicking. The bottom line is that this was a very enjoyable crime mystery. A solid four star book.
I found this book quite good. Very good actually. It is not some vanilla science fiction story dressed up as a crime mystery. It is a good old-fashioned crime mystery that happens to transpire in the future and a good one at that. It almost starts of as a text book example of some how-to-write-crime-detective-mysteries basic formula with the hot lady walking into the not too busy lone private investigators office. The first couple of chapters made me think of characters like Mike Hammer and for me that is a good thing.
The story and plot that drives the book is solid. The book is overall very well written. The characters are not at all bad. There is no rubbish political preaching and the romance parts of the book (he is a PI so of course he has to pick up at least one girl) is just right and doesn’t intrude on the rest of the story.
The science fiction part of the book is also not allowed to intrude on the actual crime/mystery/investigation bits of the story. As I wrote this is a good old-fashioned crime mystery. When the science fiction elements comes more into play towards the end of the book they blend into the story in a natural way. Very well done as far as I am concerned.
If I should complain about something, just for the sake of it, would be that I would have liked the book even better if the main protagonist would have been a bit more “hardboiled”. He is no pushover but still, a bit more Dirty Harry style would have been nice.
Oh, yes, one more thing. Why is it so popular to invent German names in novels and why is it so unpopular to actually check if it makes sense. Bauhaus Gaststätte does not make sense. Gaststätte (which means hotel/restaurant) always comes first in German and even then, Gaststätte Bauhaus would only make sense if it was located in a place called Bauhaus or had some other relation to something else named Bauhaus.
Well, that was nitpicking. The bottom line is that this was a very enjoyable crime mystery. A solid four star book.
patrick6367's review
3.0
Tougher one to rate; I could have gone four stars, and I read this one in scattered bits amidst Thanksgiving celebration so it was a fractured read, so don't read too much into my rating. You could find it a completely different experience than I did. I was really looking forward to this one on the basis of a strong 5 star review from Liviu. There were definitely some interesting bits. It was a detective/sci fi book (which I have liked many of over the years). As a detective novel I definitely felt like it was just a 3. As a Sci-fi novel, it was a bit stronger for me, maybe 3.5. However, I did finish it, and found myself wanting to know how it was all going to end, so that was well done. A solid 4 for keeping my interest up. Seems like I quit almost half the books I start these days. At this point in my life I have read too many really good books, so merely OK books don't keep my interest. I didn't quit this one so that means it had something going for it beyond being a mere three stars. Gah, I'm not sure really how to fairly rate it so I'll stick with three stars, but if you're interested in it go ahead and give it a whirl. I did definitely want to finish the book and see how the story ended.
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