The Automatic Detective

I mean, we all know that every science fiction writer sooner or later does a humorous novel about a wisecracking, hard-boiled robot detective in a city full of mutants whose shape changes unpredictably, but this one is better than any other humorous novel about a wisecracking, hard-boiled robot detective in a city full of mutants that you've read in the last year. Trust me on this. It has a street lights made of glowing industrial waste, AND a gorilla. Go read it.

The Automatic Detective is a great little read. Mack Megaton is one of my favorite characters of all times. He funny, strong, and not good with people better he thing he is oh and hes a robot. Lucia Napier is a great supporting character she smart, sexy and may or may not be in love with robots. Jung is Mack friend and giant ape need I say more. Empire City is big ugly and in need of saving. The Automatic Detective is like Hell Boy, Blade Runner, Men Black, and Bogart but unique in it's own way. Aliens, Mutants all in same book makes The Automatic Detective one of my favorite read. Great sci-fi, humor hard-boiled detecive story. I hope A. Lee Martinez make a sequel.

Meet cab driver-tough guy Mack Megaton. Just a big city hulk trying to make his way and finish his probation for full citizenship. Most people are suspicious the former soldier just might revert to his training and run amok. Mack is a lonely guy with not much of a life, but really, Mack is just a nice guy trying to get along in a tough town. Except for the fact that Mack is a 7 foot tall robot killing machine that unexpectedly developed sentience and is now considered a citizen with rights. When his neighbors disappear, Mack realizes he can't just turn away, and sets out on an epic quest to rescue them. Along the way he meets (beats up and is beaten up by) a wild selection of security robots, robot genius scientists, aliens bent on colonizing the Earth, a sexy blond bombshell media star and engineer, a (literally) 800 pound book-reading gorilla, a little green Mr. Big, a jaded cop who looks like a large white rat, and a weird assortment of friends, not-so-friends, and deadly enemies. Somehow cabbie Mack winds up a pinstripe suit, fedora-wearing hard-boiled PI with a lot of friends he never knew he had. The trip is everything, and this is a great one. There's not a boring moment, and the plot moves along like a .45 slug down a gun barrel. Mixed in with the action and humor are some serious concepts. I'm looking forward to more of Mack Megaton PI.

Martinez is back in top form! I had been rather disappointed in "In the Company of Ogres" for its lack of plot although it had plenty of wisecracks, and disappointed a bit in "A Nameless Witch" for being a bit too solemn - but here in "Automatic Detective" we are back to having novel characters, a fast-moving plot, AND all the wisecracks, in a book as original as Martinez' first, "Gil's All-Fright Diner." Saying that it's original doesn't mean there isn't any history to it. In order to get the most possible fun out of reading this book, you have to read some of the inspirations behind it. Most obviously, Isaac Asimov's "Caves of Steel" and any Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler - but also Asimov's "I, Robot" stories. For the Hammett, seeing the movie will do; for the Asimov, you definitely need to read the books; the movie called "I, Robot" will NOT cut it. One of the things to note in the robot stories is the sexism of the times back then implicit in the characterization of Susan Calvin, the robot engineer - so that you can see just how much fun Lucia Napier really is! Also, besides those, you should read Alfred Bester's story "Fondly Fahrenheit" (it's been anthologized lots, for example here: Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester). All reet! I can detect other influences here - classic Harry Harrison and Larry Niven, including Gil the ARM, for example - but I don't want this to sound too much like an academic analysis, so I'll leave you to do those comparisons yourself. As the editorial and other reviews mention plenty about the plot, I won't repeat it all here. Instead, I'll just give you some examples of the things I particularly liked. The sly turns of phrase: "Moriarty Asylum for the Criminally Inventive was the cold, dark box where they locked away all the great evil geniuses." The characters: Jung, who is a gorilla full citizen - his favorite reading is Jane Austen - is changing from his cab driver's uniform, complete with bow tie, into clothes to go out to a nightclub, and says to Mack, "Let me get out of this monkey suit." The critters: a yellow fuzzy hybrid of a dachshund and a pillbug, which rolls into a ball and plays with kids. There's also a little girl genius, thugs both robot and human, little green men, aliens, a shrink for robots... lots of great characters. The plot gets solved as satisfyingly as any mystery, and there's a great ending in the classic tradition (which also happened to remind me of the ending of Will Shetterly's "Chimera" Chimera - if you like this book, try that one too!) Family reading alert: safe for teens, even young ones, if they happen to have the vocabulary to have long since made their way through all the available juvenile fiction and are starting to browse the grown-up science fiction area. There's no sex, very little that anyone could characterize as bad language, and while there is the violence one might expect in a hard-boiled detective mystery, it is mostly robot-on-rob