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A review by hollowspine
Brain Thief by Alexander Jablokov
3.0
A Sci-fi murder mystery with elements of hard science and soft bodies. A serial killer is on the loose, but are they acting on human emotion or cold mechanical logic? Bernal Hayden-Rumi (half-Japanese geek love) is out to solve the issue, meeting a cast of mainly ladies who mostly aide him on his way.
The book was alright, it had some humorous moments and some interesting thoughts, but wasn't something I'd rave about. I might mention this book to non-serious sci-fi readers or mystery readers, but wouldn't approach anyone who reads a lot of hard sci-fi with this. They would find too many flaws and not gain enough enjoyment from this casual novel. There were a multitude of red herrings throughout the book as well, really giving Bernal the run around.
Other than that as a woman, I found Bernal an okay narrator for the story. He didn't seem too full of himself and did form different kinds of relationships with the many ladies in the book. However, Jablokov didn't shy away from presenting Bernal with many situations where he could sexually objectify them. However, having tortured myself by reading, in its entirety, Cryptonomicon, that Bernal is no Lawrence Water-whatever-his-name-was, which is very very good, that man would be the only person I would seriously hope was hit by a bus.
I didn't really understand the coke fueled sex-scene in the novel either. I'd say that the relationships were the weakest point of the novel. It seemed that Bernal was basically always evaluating the women of the story to see if they would be 'his type.' Rather odd when he's supposedly searching for his dead boss and the serial killer/ mars rover that killed her). He has a beer with one minor character's extremely minor sister and then asked her out, seeming to think a lot about her as an ideal candidate...then *Spoiler* has sex with a serial killer. Go figure.
The book was alright, it had some humorous moments and some interesting thoughts, but wasn't something I'd rave about. I might mention this book to non-serious sci-fi readers or mystery readers, but wouldn't approach anyone who reads a lot of hard sci-fi with this. They would find too many flaws and not gain enough enjoyment from this casual novel. There were a multitude of red herrings throughout the book as well, really giving Bernal the run around.
Other than that as a woman, I found Bernal an okay narrator for the story. He didn't seem too full of himself and did form different kinds of relationships with the many ladies in the book. However, Jablokov didn't shy away from presenting Bernal with many situations where he could sexually objectify them. However, having tortured myself by reading, in its entirety, Cryptonomicon, that Bernal is no Lawrence Water-whatever-his-name-was, which is very very good, that man would be the only person I would seriously hope was hit by a bus.
I didn't really understand the coke fueled sex-scene in the novel either. I'd say that the relationships were the weakest point of the novel. It seemed that Bernal was basically always evaluating the women of the story to see if they would be 'his type.' Rather odd when he's supposedly searching for his dead boss and the serial killer/ mars rover that killed her). He has a beer with one minor character's extremely minor sister and then asked her out, seeming to think a lot about her as an ideal candidate...then *Spoiler* has sex with a serial killer. Go figure.