Customer Reviews

A Death of Honor

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Joe Clifford Faust possesses the rare ability to produce science fiction that is simultaneously fun and substantial, as this fabulous SF mystery from the late 80's demonstrates. The premise is inspired: in the near future, the police are just too damn busy to handle every case, so the 31st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides victims the right and resources to conduct their own investigation.

Our likable protagonist, Payne, finds occasion to take the 31st, when he comes home one evening to find a dead girl in his apartment. Payne and his friend Bailey are club-hopping bachelors (well, everyone is in THIS future society, and that's where the fun comes in), but Payne is also a skilled bio-engineer, so he's prepared to act as his own CSI.

The bio-medicine in Death of Honor is impressively convincing (Faust must have done some serious research here), and handled in a way that the reader can follow. Payne's labwork is used to expose critical plot-points, rather than as an excuse to toss around bleeding-edge buzzwords. In a sense, this novel was considerably ahead of it's time--fifteen years later, we're a nation of forensics buffs.

And Faust really knows how to structure a murder mystery, too; this isn't merely sci-fi tarted up with noir cliches. Neither the mystery nor the SF suffers in this marriage. Also refreshing is the fact that the resolution doesn't involve any shadowy billionaires or evil zaibatsus (well, maybe an ambiguous zaibatsu). ADOH's characters, "villains" included, are ordinary, flawed human beings, plausibly driven to tragic decisions--responses demanded by the corrupt world they inhabit.

Oh, I should add that the ending is a real nail-biter.

"Twenty-first century New York- where power failures are a frequent fact of life..where nightclubs fulfill all your fantasies..and where the only things still considered illegal are murder and trying to get away to one of the last free enclaves, Australia."

This is a great book. It's a sci-fi, intrigue, mystery that'll keep you glued to it until you've finished. It moves well, tells a great story and keeps you guessing until the end. Written in the 80's, it's an interesting look back at what we thought the future might be like and just how close Mr. Faust was with some of it.

This book was so engrossing, it was hard to put down, especially as I got deeper into it. It's hard to believe that this was the author's first book! It's very well paced, original, and presents a story that'll stay with you for years. This is the type of material the Sci-Fi channel should be using to create its original movies. I think the story could easily be adapted into such. Enjoy the 'Danse!'

I am a long time fan of the author's books, and this one wasn't in my library yet. I can't wait for the rest of his books to come out for the kindle. While not his best book, it had everything that I liked from his style.

I also really like it when authors include parts that weren't included with the original release. The ending was perfectly fine as it was, but it was nice to read the added epilogue.

Some of the concepts are clearly outdated. The imagination of the future from an 80's SF point of view, but taken with the knowledge of when it was written, they work with the story. If you are looking for some campy 80's pulp fiction, this book is a dollar well spent.

One of the most memorable (anonymous) quotes I ever heard was "If you've got a message, send it Western Union". The usage is with a subtle irony, as the speaker disapproved of the practice of leading a reader on with the carrot of an interesting story, and then whacking the reader with a stick to pound in a moral lesson.

That may be the case with "A Death of Honor". While the science aspect is fascinating, the socio-political background for the novel is oddly unrealistic. There are rules in Science Fiction. For example, anything is believable if you can sell the concept. And that doesn't happen here.

In this case, the author shows us an America of the future as regimented in it's way as in Orwell's 1984. I waited and waited for some explanation how this all came about. No explanation came. The author depicts life in America as having become one wild party, with no family structure allowed, children raised by the State, and government officials that openly use torture and murder to punish resistance.

America has become the mirror image of Soviet Russia, with no freedoms left, Secret Police, no emigration allowed, the works...And nowhere was there any suggestion that any great cataclysm had occurred to change American society. As if we would stand by and allow all children to be abducted and raised by the State, and never blink. No, without some explanation of HOW such a ridiculous, warped society could happen, it just doesn't fly. I can imagine stringent eugenics laws following a nuclear war, for example. Nope, the author just uses the Fear of war as his justification. Unlikely in the extreme, as we know that in the face of war, people cling to traditions.

My only conclusion is that the author has a strong dislike of American culture, and no appreciation for the strength we derive from family ties. These traditions do not fall away overnight, nor would we allow such legislation to take away our rights. The book ends with the crowds of huddled m! asses, trying to escape from America (!) singing a British Anthem ! I haven't read such Anti-American claptrap since I read Michael Moorcock's Nomad of Time.