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angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
4.0
A cyborg cop is sent to an outlaw planet to solve a murder. Beyond the characterization of the cyborg, which was incredible, the ideas in this book just kept coming. The human side of the cyborg’s personality. The fifty-fifty nature of quantum travel. The use of quantum weapons. The manipulation and abuse of longevity “medicine”. The hive-mind of an alien race as pertains to their defeated enemies and their ability to manipulate time. A really odd noir murder mystery set on an outlaw world being investigated by a cyborg with a healthy dose of quantum physics thrown in. There was even an appendix on how quantum travel and communication could take place in this universe. Very clever stuff and entertaining too. Different than 99% of the science fiction out there.
lisabee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It's a more intellectual than emotional sort of fun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
untravel's review against another edition
5.0
This enjoyed this book immensely. Don't have time for a full review (as usual), but here are some 'review notes'.
-This book is filled with a hyperbolic amount of sex, drugs, violence, and death. If this kind of stuff bothers you, I heartily recommend not reading this book. Or even leaving it in a room with small children. However, I should point out that all this material is presented in such an Over-The-Top (OTT) fashion that I don't think it's gratuitous. Some authors might present such material in elaborate detail and with profound seriousness. This is appealing if you are a 12-year old boy or an adult with developmental problems. Palmer presents it as All! Totally! Awesome!--that is, as a joke. Of course, you may not find it funny, but I think the difference of intent matters here. As always, context is key.
-The prose is a little stiff. I don't know if this is typical of Palmer's work, or specific to this novel (since I've only read the one). Regardless, there are two elements that make it work anyway: 1) the narrator is a cyborg who is frequently characterized as being cold and robotic (so it's consistent, at least) and 2) Palmer has great comedic timing (or pacing) which makes the stiffness of the prose work as a kind of deadpan delivery, making an already funny book even funnier.
-The (I think deliberately) cheesy hyperbole of the violence etc. conceals a lot of clever bits. For me personally, my favorite bits were the academic satire of the 'Principles of Quantum Teleportation' section and a throwaway joke from page 407 where Palmer refers to 'husserls of consciousness'-where a 'husserl' is a unit of measurement of consciousness. That's hysterically funny 1) if you ever studied phenomenology or 2) appreciate the sort of 'authorial personality' that would drop an obscure-for-almost-everybody philosophy joke into a book superficially about an intergalactic police robot, just because. There's lots of physics jokes too, and I'm sure there's more I missed.
-Palmer uses a lot of interesting stylistic devices that would be, by themselves, worth the price of admission. I already mentioned the fake academic article (which I think is a Borges reference). There's also sections of the book written as a flowchart, another as song lyrics. In one passage, he seems to invent a kind of Dadaist rap. The book is also full of dramatic irony. In short, Palmer presents his ostensibly silly material ('Galactic Cop Fights Crime!') in numerous complex and interesting ways. The contrast creates a neat sort of 'stylistic irony', where the content is opposed to the form. Imagine if someone wrote, say, a profound theological argument into a series of dirty limericks, and you'd have some idea of the kind of stylistic contrasts that Palmer is working with. If you've got a strong stomach, then working it all out with him is both interesting and fun--a combination that is, in my experience, exceedingly rare.
-Recommended if you like Philip K. Dick or Rudy Rucker.
-This book is filled with a hyperbolic amount of sex, drugs, violence, and death. If this kind of stuff bothers you, I heartily recommend not reading this book. Or even leaving it in a room with small children. However, I should point out that all this material is presented in such an Over-The-Top (OTT) fashion that I don't think it's gratuitous. Some authors might present such material in elaborate detail and with profound seriousness. This is appealing if you are a 12-year old boy or an adult with developmental problems. Palmer presents it as All! Totally! Awesome!--that is, as a joke. Of course, you may not find it funny, but I think the difference of intent matters here. As always, context is key.
-The prose is a little stiff. I don't know if this is typical of Palmer's work, or specific to this novel (since I've only read the one). Regardless, there are two elements that make it work anyway: 1) the narrator is a cyborg who is frequently characterized as being cold and robotic (so it's consistent, at least) and 2) Palmer has great comedic timing (or pacing) which makes the stiffness of the prose work as a kind of deadpan delivery, making an already funny book even funnier.
-The (I think deliberately) cheesy hyperbole of the violence etc. conceals a lot of clever bits. For me personally, my favorite bits were the academic satire of the 'Principles of Quantum Teleportation' section and a throwaway joke from page 407 where Palmer refers to 'husserls of consciousness'-where a 'husserl' is a unit of measurement of consciousness. That's hysterically funny 1) if you ever studied phenomenology or 2) appreciate the sort of 'authorial personality' that would drop an obscure-for-almost-everybody philosophy joke into a book superficially about an intergalactic police robot, just because. There's lots of physics jokes too, and I'm sure there's more I missed.
-Palmer uses a lot of interesting stylistic devices that would be, by themselves, worth the price of admission. I already mentioned the fake academic article (which I think is a Borges reference). There's also sections of the book written as a flowchart, another as song lyrics. In one passage, he seems to invent a kind of Dadaist rap. The book is also full of dramatic irony. In short, Palmer presents his ostensibly silly material ('Galactic Cop Fights Crime!') in numerous complex and interesting ways. The contrast creates a neat sort of 'stylistic irony', where the content is opposed to the form. Imagine if someone wrote, say, a profound theological argument into a series of dirty limericks, and you'd have some idea of the kind of stylistic contrasts that Palmer is working with. If you've got a strong stomach, then working it all out with him is both interesting and fun--a combination that is, in my experience, exceedingly rare.
-Recommended if you like Philip K. Dick or Rudy Rucker.
henryarmitage's review against another edition
3.0
Cool story. My first by this author. Lots of twists and turns. Long, though. I feel like this book could use a little editing.
sillychicken's review against another edition
5.0
Warning: This book eats people.
Don't you believe me?
It eats your time, that much is for certain - you pick it up at half-past ten at night so you can have a nice little read before you go to- what, it's 3 AM already? And you're over a third of the way through this monster of a book?
It eats your mind, whatever you are doing during the day (whilst admittedly rather tired, note the above) you find your mind slowly wondering back to the plot, to the characters, to certain moments, to theories, to... I think you get the idea.
It eats your heart. Characters you initially didn't care much for you find yourself warming to in a rather alarming fashion. You don't notice it, not until you sit back and think.
I'm not saying this book isn't without faults - at some point during the first chunk I found myself not all too interested (evidently that opinion changed) and the author at some scenes seems not to be content to merely note the fact that there is... much debauchery but instead insists to go into quite some detail, which a reader may wish to skip, or not as the case might be, who am I to judge the theoretical readers of this review?
Yes, certain scenes were incredibly cheesy(*ahem* gladiator arena *ahem*) but it was an enthralling read with characters I could get invested with and wonderful world-building, not to mention humorous snark.
Perhaps I enjoyed this book because it simply didn't care about how cheesy it got, the main character can exchange his eyes for lasers if he wants, and he is rather powerful, if never quite as smart as he thinks himself.
All in all, yes, this book is recommended.
Don't you believe me?
It eats your time, that much is for certain - you pick it up at half-past ten at night so you can have a nice little read before you go to- what, it's 3 AM already? And you're over a third of the way through this monster of a book?
It eats your mind, whatever you are doing during the day (whilst admittedly rather tired, note the above) you find your mind slowly wondering back to the plot, to the characters, to certain moments, to theories, to... I think you get the idea.
It eats your heart. Characters you initially didn't care much for you find yourself warming to in a rather alarming fashion. You don't notice it, not until you sit back and think.
I'm not saying this book isn't without faults - at some point during the first chunk I found myself not all too interested (evidently that opinion changed) and the author at some scenes seems not to be content to merely note the fact that there is... much debauchery but instead insists to go into quite some detail, which a reader may wish to skip, or not as the case might be, who am I to judge the theoretical readers of this review?
Yes, certain scenes were incredibly cheesy
Perhaps I enjoyed this book because it simply didn't care about how cheesy it got, the main character can exchange his eyes for lasers if he wants, and he is rather powerful, if never quite as smart as he thinks himself.
All in all, yes, this book is recommended.
datashaman's review
5.0
It's like being stuck in a bloody, relentless boss level with a save game that is too close to death to really be useful. This book had me hooked all the way through and turned me on to Philip Palmer's books. Heartily recommended if you like hard-boiled heroes, with a mercenary flair and sheer bloody-mindedness.
bhalpin's review
2.0
The premise is very clever-- a semi-human cyborg cop is dispatched to a planet full of convicts to investigate a particularly gruesome mass murder. But what starts out as a kind of SF noir detective story kind of spirals out of control. It becomes clear at some point that we're in Philip K. Dick territory, exploring ideas about what it means to be human, the nature of reality, and stuff like that. Which I'm totally cool with, but Dick did it in 250 pages with a very tight, fast-moving plot. This one runs to 500, and once the immediacy of the plot runs out, you're left with the characters, who don't really resonate emotionally, and the Big Ideas, which are interesting, but you know, not at this length. I appreciated Palmer's inventiveness and his writing and would read another of his books, but this one just didn't work for me.
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