The Automatic Detective
Even in Empire City, a town where weird science is the hope for tomorrow, it’s hard for a robot to make his way. It’s even harder for a robot named Mack Megaton, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack’s not interested in world domination. He’s just a bot trying to get...
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Even in Empire City, a town where weird science is the hope for tomorrow, it’s hard for a robot to make his way. It’s even harder for a robot named Mack Megaton, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack’s not interested in world domination. He’s just a bot trying to get by, trying to demonstrate that he isn’t just an automated smashing machine, and to earn his citizenship in the process. It should be as easy as crushing a tank for Mack, but some bots just can’t catch a break.When Mack’s neighbors are kidnapped, Mack sets off on a journey through the dark alleys and gleaming skyscrapers of Empire City. Along the way, he runs afoul of a talking gorilla, a brainy dame, a mutant lowlife, a little green mob boss, and the secret conspiracy at the heart of Empire’s founders---not to mention more trouble than he bargained for. What started out as one missing family becomes a battle for the future of Empire and every citizen that calls her home.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780765318343 (0765318342)
Publish date: February 5th 2008
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages no: 320
Edition language: English
The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez Dresden Files, move over. The Automatic Detective has stolen my heart as the best scifi/fantasy-detective noir crossover out there. The characters are fun and funny and it is a well-written, enjoyable spoof that carries and twists all of the tropes of the ...
Adams-Chandler Jambalaya (aka The Automatic Detective)Gently brown one abducted family in heavy cast iron sci-fi universe seasoned with mutant-inducing radiation.Remove family, leaving well-oiled universe.In the same universe, sautée:-A seven-hundred sixteen pound (robot) cab driver trying to keep a...
"Look, I wrote a detective novel!"No one reads those anymore. People like more modern things nowadays. Robots and suchlike."Robots, eh?"With just glance at her, I knew in a second that this dame was more trouble than she was worth, even if she did have the longest legs I had ever seen, right up to h...
In Gil’s All Fright Diner, he spoofed the horror genre, in In the Company of Ogres and A Nameless Witch, he spoofed the fantasy genre, and now, with The Automatic Detective, A. Lee Martinez pulls a double-spoof, of the science fiction and hard-boiled crime dramas. Though, admittedly, it’s hard to c...
Fredric Brown meets Terry Pratchett.Or, 1940s detective pulp noir fiction meets a wacky science fiction universe.Either way, The Automatic Detective is a light, funny, well-written novel. It never goes awry. Considering the sorry state of modern genre publishing, that's an achievement in itself.The ...