bannie
Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 1966
Location: Boston
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:13 pm Post subject: The Automatic Detective |
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About three years ago I stumbled onto a book called Gil's All Fright Diner and bought it on a whim. It turned out to be the funniest book I've ever read so whenever I see a new book by its author, A. Lee Martinez, I grab it. His last two, In the Company of Ogres and The Nameless Witch haven't been nearly as funny as quirky, though still good in their own right. Then I found The Automatic Detective
It is the perfect mix of pulpy film noir detective stories and fantasy. It's set in Empire City, where cars fly (or crawl), mutants and robots roam the streets and skyscrapers below a hundred stories are considered 'quaint'.
The story revolves around Mack Megaton, a robot built by a mad scientist bent on taking over the world. That was until Mack developed the "Free Will" glitch and now drives a cab as part of his probation. When his neighbors go missing, Mack plays detective and crosses paths with a genius femme fatal, a mutant mobster and a conspiracy that will shake Empire to its core
It's an excellent and quick read. Mack is a sarcastic, hard-boiled robot with a heart and the characters he comes across elicit some kind of response, either sympathy, intrigue or distrust; rarely is there a major or supporting character where you don't care what happens to them
It's the second best out of the four Martinez has written, but thats like saying Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was better than The Last Crusade |
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