The Automatic Detective

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It has all of the elements I like - detective fiction and sci-fi are my two loves. So why didn't I like this book more?

The beginning was slow. There were a lot of things the author had to explain, and it was clunky explanation at best. Author would mention "X", and then would explain it. It felt kind of like reading a junior high school textbook explaining how when two hydrogens and an oxygen combine it creates water. Once the basis of the world was explained, it did pick up, but then it didn't go far enough. I felt like Martinez was trying to write a hard-boiled detective novel (with, you know, robots) but didn't go far enough in the hard-boiled realm. He toed the line of the genre and didn't take it far enough.

The sci-fi element didn't reach its full potential either. The mark of truly amazing sci-fi is the analogy an author will making using an outlandish universe to parallel our own current social/political/etc. issues in the world. The Automatic Detective could have easily explored themes of race, immigration, politics, environmentalism... instead, it once again toed the line of all of these themes, but then came back at the brink right when it was time to commit to making a statement about any of them.

This book is a fun little read, but I think it really fell short on the above issues. So what could have been an amazing book, turned out to be nothing more than diversion that I don't think will stick with me for very long.

This was my first A. Lee Martinez book - will I try others? Not sure that it's worth my time at this point. ( )

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 adventures of Mack Megaton, an erstwhile killing machine burdened with free will and a conscience, make for a good read. A. Lee Martinez hits the right notes and nods to the classic elements of the pulp noir detective story. I did note a few passages that seemed oddly repetitious - enough to make me wonder if the book had first been serialized in a magazine, and then imperfectly fixed up - but these are only the mildest of flaws. I hope to see a sequel, or several, and I'll keep an eye out for more by Mr. Martinez. ( )

This book is about a robot who becomes a detective to find a family that lives next door to him. It was funny and well written. I enjoyed it immensely. Great Fun Read. ( )

This book combines the feel of hard-boiled with the joys of a Sci-Fi novel. I’ve never seen this cross genre before but The Automatic Detective pulls it off so well. The best description I’ve found about this book was by a Goodreads user; ‘Raymond Chandler and William Gibson had one drunken night, nine months later, this book would be born’. I’m not sure if there will be anymore books in the series, but I secretly hope for more. ( )

Great fun! ( )