Review Haiku – R.O.T.O.R.

Posted on January 29, 2012

A robotic cop
Goes rogue with one directive
Judge and Execute

R.O.T.O.R. at Rotten Tomatoes
R.O.T.O.R. at IMDB

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Review Haiku – Transmorphers

Posted on November 29, 2011

After invasion
Humans retreat underground
Away from robots

Transmorphers at Rotten Tomatoes
Transmorphers at IMDB
Transmorphers at Amazon

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Tagged with: 2007, 3 stars, aliens, cyberpunk, film series, Leigh SCOTT, military, movie review, post-apocalypse, Review Haiku, science fiction, soldiers, united states

Reality 36

Posted on August 20, 2011

A cyberpunk crime novel that’s part Neal Stephenson’s “The Diamond Age”, part William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, and part Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes mystery.

The Sherlock Holmes of this book is Richards, an Artificial Intelligence who likes to wear a fedora and trenchcoat in the style of many silver screen detectives. The Dr. Watson in this book is Otto von Klein, a cyborg and former soldier, who provides the brawn to Richards’ brain. The pair are private investigators with offices around the world. Their latest case deals with the mysterious death of Professor Zhang Qifang, a prominent activist for sentient rights. The problem is that it appears he’s been murdered twice.

The name Reality 36 derives from a virtual reality world in the book, which is the location of subplot involving Veronique Valdaire, a former student of Prof. Zhang. Reality 36 and the other virtual reality worlds are akin to Second Life and Worlds of Warcraft, except the worlds in this book are populated by non-human sentient beings.

As cyberpunk novels go, this is as good as those written by Gibson and Stephenson. The only downside is that it ends as a cliffhanger. This also means the book is thrilling to the last page. “Reality 36″ is meant to be first in a series of books based on Richards and Klein Investigations.

Reality 36 at Amazon

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Rulebreaker

Posted on August 8, 2011

Olivia has a bunch of rules she lives by, as she finds they help in her line of (often illegal) work. Felon’s Rule Number One is “Don’t get emotionally involved.” When she is recruited by her ex-husband to do a bit of corporate espionage, she comes close to breaking this rule. However, she finds that while she still has feelings for Tonio, they both maintain a professional distance for the sake of the job. Olivia’s part in the plot is to become an executive assistant for R.J. Talbot, a VP with a mining company. The crew believes she has information on a new air filtration system. if it comes out that the company was withholding a new safety technology, the company would face huge fines. The crew intends to find information about the system and blackmail the company for millions of credits.

As Olivia becomes a hyper-efficient assistant to Regina “Zia” Talbot, she finds herself becoming more emotionally, and romantically, involved with her boss. Without wanting to give away too much of the story, Olivia eventually breaks Felon’s Rule Number One when it comes to Zia, thus the title of the book.

Like most science fiction and other works that are of another time and another place, a lot is left to the reader’s imagination. With references to different technology and economic systems, the reader mind fills in the blanks as necessary… at least I do. For this book, I found myself thinking of the anime Cowboy Bebop and the film Outland. Cowboy Bebop was useful for getting an idea about what the cities might look like, but Outland was useful because it also involved mining, and had a ruthlessly evil corporation. Like Sean Connery’s character in Outland, Olivia gets to the point where she isn’t sure who she can trust.

The book is told in the first-person, from Olivia’s point-of-view. As such, the book deals a lot with her feelings and thoughts, as well as her insecurities, hopes, and desires. The downside is that none of the other characters are as well developed. Though Tonio and Zia, characters that Olivia cares about, are described very well physically, they don’t have a lot of personality. While there are a few obvious antagonists to Olivia’s protagonist role, they’re superficial and any tension seems to come as much from Olivia’s worries and insecurities.

Overall, it’s a good book. It’s an interesting story, but I think telling it in the first-person hampered it.

Rulebreaker at Amazon

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