356 pages
English language
Published Feb. 8, 2013
"Robert J. Sawyer, the author of such "revelatory and thought-provoking"* novels as Triggers and The WWW Trilogy, presents a noir mystery expanded from his Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novella "Identity Theft" and his Aurora Award-winning short story "Biding Time," and set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper ... Alex Lomax is the one and only private eye working the mean streets of New Klondike, the Martian frontier town that sprang up forty years ago after Simon Weingarten and Denny O'Reilly discovered fossils on the Red Planet. Back on Earth, where anything can be synthesized, the remains of alien life are the most valuable of all collectibles, so shiploads of desperate treasure hunters stampeded to Mars in the Great Martian Fossil Rush. Trying to make an honest buck in a dishonest world, Lomax tracks down killers and kidnappers among the failed …
"Robert J. Sawyer, the author of such "revelatory and thought-provoking"* novels as Triggers and The WWW Trilogy, presents a noir mystery expanded from his Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novella "Identity Theft" and his Aurora Award-winning short story "Biding Time," and set on a lawless Mars in a future where everything is cheap, and life is even cheaper ... Alex Lomax is the one and only private eye working the mean streets of New Klondike, the Martian frontier town that sprang up forty years ago after Simon Weingarten and Denny O'Reilly discovered fossils on the Red Planet. Back on Earth, where anything can be synthesized, the remains of alien life are the most valuable of all collectibles, so shiploads of desperate treasure hunters stampeded to Mars in the Great Martian Fossil Rush. Trying to make an honest buck in a dishonest world, Lomax tracks down killers and kidnappers among the failed prospectors, corrupt cops, and a growing population of transfers--lucky stiffs who, after striking paleontological gold, upload their minds into immortal android bodies. But when he uncovers clues to solving the decades-old murders of Weingarten and O'Reilly, along with a journal that may lead to their legendary mother lode of Martian fossils, God only knows what he'll dig up ... "The Globe and Mail."
This was a fun read. Robert J. Sawyer merges tropes from hard-boiled/noir detective stories, frontier/gold-rush tales, and science fiction into a seamless whole. Mars become the new Klondike, with fossils standing in for gold on the new get-rich-quick (or fail miserably) scheme. Plenty of twists, setbacks, and betrayals.
I just won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I'm quite excited and will hopefully receive the book in a few weeks.
I'm actually a huge fan of Robert J. Sawyer. Several years ago, I switched from reading mostly fantasy, to mostly Science Fiction. Part of that reason was Robert J. Sawyer. I ended up picking up [b:Illegal Alien|264938|Illegal Alien|Robert J. Sawyer|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1173249047s/264938.jpg|829063] and I was hooked immediately. After finishing it, I went out and found as many of his books as I could. Since then, I've been trying to find more and more Sci-Fi that questions the universe in a similar way.
I can't wait to start reading this book and plan on adding to my review once I finish it.
So, I'm a few chapters in, and I'm pretty sure I've read the original novella this book started out as. Fortunately, it was long enough ago, that although the …
I just won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I'm quite excited and will hopefully receive the book in a few weeks.
I'm actually a huge fan of Robert J. Sawyer. Several years ago, I switched from reading mostly fantasy, to mostly Science Fiction. Part of that reason was Robert J. Sawyer. I ended up picking up [b:Illegal Alien|264938|Illegal Alien|Robert J. Sawyer|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1173249047s/264938.jpg|829063] and I was hooked immediately. After finishing it, I went out and found as many of his books as I could. Since then, I've been trying to find more and more Sci-Fi that questions the universe in a similar way.
I can't wait to start reading this book and plan on adding to my review once I finish it.
So, I'm a few chapters in, and I'm pretty sure I've read the original novella this book started out as. Fortunately, it was long enough ago, that although the books is familiar when I read it, it's still foggy enough, that I don't really remember everything. That and the book expands on the novella, so I'm looking forward to reading the new parts.
Finished. Overall, an enjoyable book. It was definitely more mystery than SF and not the typical read for a Sawyer novel. I much prefer his speculative fiction though. I want to read a book that asks questions about god and fate and humanity and this book was seriously lacking in that aspect. Take out Mars and the transfers and we have an ordinary detective story.
