Steeldriver

Jon Hundred remembers the day he was born. He remembers the agony he suffered as his creators tested his nerve endings. He remembers the day he was made into a cyborg. In a very Robocop-like fashion he has very little memory of the man he was before, he only knows what he is now. A blue-skinned, 8 foot tall cyborg possessing some of the most advanced technology seen on Pellay and working as a grunt miner on a backwater planet on the fringes of the colonized universe.

Cue the surprisingly engaging plot. I don't know what I was thinking when I started this novel. Heck, I don't know what I was thinking when I BOUGHT it. I suppose it was something along the lines of "Oh hey, crappy battered piece of crap paperback book in a library book sale show more for practically nothing, I'll take it!" Whatever the case may be, I eventually decided to read it and I'm rather shocked that I actually liked it. It had just the right mix of depth and thrill to suit my fancy for a fun science fiction read.

It was far from perfect, of course. There was some pacing issues, some editing was needed, and I can't say I didn't roll my eyes from time to time. It was the sex robots, the head-slappingly flat plot devices, the sometimes-ridiculous logic used by the characters, but mostly it was the sex robots. Still, what good is a science fiction novel if it doesn't occasionally feel like it was written by a 14-year-old boy?

Maybe it was because of my own low expectations, but I liked Steeldriver. Enlightening, eye-opening, life-affirming it was not, but it was a fun ride. show less