Think Sam Spade in 2032: Zachary Nixon Johnson is the last licensed PI on the planet. He has a psychic secretary, his girlfriend is a curvaceous, highly intelligent (think surgeon) ex-kick-boxing champ, and his best friend is the smartest computer on Earth. Stir in one missing (and deadly), plutonium-powered android, a wealthy corporation - missing aforesaid android - and a few annoying competitors from DickCo, and you've barely scratched the surface of a very good, slightly tongue-in-cheek, mystery.

Campy, silly, predictable and fun. I've just started the sequel, The Doomsday Brunette, and it's right up the same alley. ( )

This book didn't work for me. I couldn't quite settle on whether the authors were lampooning the pulp genres or contributing to them, though it was unquestionable that they were lampooning our society. The humor was a bit forced and got old after a while (OK, I get it—Bill Gates is a god, everything is "New" and Hollywood does run everything!); the action never really got going; the smartest computer on the planet was less smart than the reader. I think A. Lee Martinez did a better job of mixing noir with science fiction in The Automatic Detective. ( )

The traditionel noir PI setup, set in the future - the 2050's - with killer droids, clones and cars. Killer almost everything in fact.
Zachary Nixon Johnson - the last PI on eart - is hired to find an escaped super droid. A droid who is psycotic, violent and modelled on a worldfamous exotic danser.
Johnson gets attacked so often in the course of his investigations, it is impossible to keep count, but due to his obligatory tech genius associate and his toys, he escapes all attempts at his life relatively unscathed. He is accompanied by a super AI - who fills the role of cheeky sidekick - and the interactions between them are meant to funny, but although they did cause a few laughs they were few, and too far between. ( )

"Hypothetically," I said, "if a superpowered android were to escape, where would it go?"

This is the problem for Zachary Nixion Johnson, the last private investigator on earth. A medium boiled PI, he has a lightly boiled supercomputer assistant named HARV, luckily for him. Imagine Orac with a personality, and Zach is a cross between something out of 2000AD and DC's Star Hawkins.

Given that the android double of the femme fatale he has to track down has 200 times the physical abilities of a normal human, and is nuclear powered, having help is good. He also has a genius scientist friend that has fitted him up with some nifty body armour.

Zach's girlfriend could probably enjoy drinks with the Stainless Steel Rat's wife, too.

Light, fast, and diverting.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2007/0... ( )