THE PLUTONIUM BLONDE,
by John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem
Daw Books - September 5, 2001
ISBN: 0756400066 - Paperback
Science Fiction
Violence
Reviewed by Jo Rogers,
MyShelf.com
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Zachary Nixon Johnson
is the last licensed private investigator on Earth. In fact, there isn't
much call for his kind of work since the vidnets have made top ranking
shows out of the escapades of unlicensed P.I.s, like Sidney Whoop and
company from DickCo. So why would the world's richest woman, BB Star,
owner of Exshell, the world's largest corporation, summon Zach to her
office?
Since the summons came
by way of a kidnapping attempt, Zach almost refused the case. But the
bank account was low, and the only alternative was cutting the ribbon
to open a new store, Zach accepted the case. He and his computer, HARV,
the most sophisticated computer in the world, went to see what was so
bad it couldn't be made public.
It seemed that BS Star,
BB's deceased husband, had created an android that looked like BB. But
it is illegal to make an android with human skin tones, and this particular
plutonium-powered android, BB-2, was missing. BB needed Zach to find her
before the insane robot killed someone. Exshell would pay handsomely to
keep this quiet. But can Zach and HARV stay alive long enough to capture
a crazy exotic-dancer droid that just might be smarter than HARV?
THE PLUTONIUM BLONDE
is a fun romp through cyberspace and the future Earth. Zach is a bumbling,
all-too-human man with occasional flashes of brilliance that even eclipse
HARV. I enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek look at the future of private investigation,
and I look forward to the further exploits of Zachary Nixon Johnson, Private
Investigator, and his computer sidekick, HARV.
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