Consequences: A Retrieval Artist Novel [Paperback]

Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2004

Retrieval Artist Miles Flint brought one of the Disappeared out of hiding, believing she would be safe. But then she's murdered, plunging Flint into a mystery involving an enigmatic alien race-and the fate of the entire solar system.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The search for a woman who has become Disappeared because of her involvement in the Etaen civil war--unusually, because she was pardoned--turns into a nasty murder case and a diplomatic incident. Retrieval artist Miles Flint's former partner heads the police investigation, and while Miles can't help her, his curiosity and conscience compel him to nab the perps, too. The Disappeared and her parents were murdered not long after Miles reunited them, and superficial evidence fingers Miles. But it's more complicated, of course. Indeed, the case is the kind of tangled web only PIs are comfortable with, for although the civil war has officially ended, it actually continues as long as there are witnesses to murders connected with it. The arrival on the moon of a delegation to make the Etaen bid to enter the Alliance complicates matters, but Miles is a good detective and an unusual retrieval artist who cares about the consequences of bringing a Disappeared out of hiding. Rusch mounts hard-boiled noir on an expansive sf background with great panache. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Roc (April 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451459717
• ISBN-13: 978-0451459718
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #705,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shades and shades of gray, July 5, 2004

By 

sonytoao (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Consequences: A Retrieval Artist Novel (Paperback)

Rusch loves to write characters, both protagonists and antagonists, in shades of gray. And the reader, often used to choosing sides and rooting for or against characters always ends up, like her characters, with niggling doubts as to the choices they've made.

Consequences continues the tight suspense of the entire Retrieval Artist series by drawing us into the lives and motivations of complex, richly drawn characters, including Miles Flint, a good man forced to make dark choices, and DeRicci, a reluctant hero who believes in only one thing: that she will always fail.

This book, nay the entire RA series, belong in any serious sci-fi reader's collection.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-rate SciFi, April 24, 2005

By 

Edwin B. Burgess "KS librarian" (Leavenworth, KS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consequences: A Retrieval Artist Novel (Paperback)

Rusch's multi-racial galactic civilization is enthralling, and she also knows how to tell a compelling story. Flint, the Retrieval Artist who specializes in bringing people back from being Disappeared, is an interesting mix of noir private detective and high-tech hero, constantly weighing his actions in the moral scales, thinking through what he does. In this case, events spin out of his control rather quickly, and dire happenings are revealed. First I've seen of Rusch's work, but I'll soon be reading everything she's written.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great sf mystery, April 6, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consequences: A Retrieval Artist Novel (Paperback)

In the far distant future, mankind has spread throughout the stars colonizing worlds and making treaties with alien species to trade goods. Part of each treaty includes a clause that when humans deal with aliens, they must obey alien laws and if they don't they will be punished according tothe penal code of those they have beleaguered. Many humans who break alien laws become the Disappeared, changing their identity and going to planets to escape alien justice.

Caleb and Mimi Lahiri go to Retrieval Artist Miles Flint to hire him to find their daughter Carolyn who has been pardoned by the new ruling government of Etae who were once considered rebels. It isn't long before he locates Carolyn and reunites her with her parents but soon afterward the police on Armstrong, the domed city on the moon, find all three Lahiris murdered. Mike's former partner officer Noelle DeRicci wants his help but he has to work alone due to the nature of his job. He learns that he is being set up for the Lahiris murders and must find a way of clearing his name by solving the case without getting himself killed.

Part science fiction, part mystery and pure enjoyment are the words to describe Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest Retrieval Artist novel. What makes CONSEQUENCES stand out is that the Etae are humans although they are not part of the Earth Alliance because they are considered uncivilized warmongers who practice genocide on their own people. Though not enough attention is paid to the alien races except for a few very serio-comic scenes, this is a strong murder mystery in outer space story line

Harriet Klausner