Customer Reviews

Extremes: A Retrieval Artist Novel

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

 

 

Extremes (2003) is the second novel in the Retrieval Artist series, following The Disappeared. In the previous volume, Miles Flint and his partner, Noelle DeRicci, are detectives in the Moon Police. They survive and solve three cases involving the Disappeared, people who have been helped to vanish from official view after being convicted of crimes on alien worlds.

Such Disappeared are considered criminals under interstellar treaties signed by the Terran authorities and all Terran police are directed to assist any aliens or bounty hunters who are tracking down such fugitives. These were Miles's first cases as a detective and the obvious injustices in all three instances are more than he can ignore. When he receives a large sum of money, Miles resigns from the force and buys the business of a friend who is a retrieval artist.

After learning as much about the business as he can from Paloma, the former owner, Miles awaits his first case. He is approached by a junior attorney with the firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xandor, Ltd, to discover the whereabouts of a Disappeared. Miles is suspicious of the offer, especially when the woman mentions that Paloma had worked with them in the past. Fearing that he might be used as a Tracker, Miles refuses the case and then visits a research cafe near the University campus to investigate WSX. Shortly thereafter, Ignatius Wagner, the younger son of WSX's senior partner, shows up to persuade him to take the case.

Meanwhile, Noelle and her new partner, Leif van der Ketting, are directed to the site of the Armstrong Marathon, where the body of a woman has been found on the course. The body appears to be Jane Zweig, the co-owner of an extreme tours company. Zweig's partner, Brady Coburn, has discovered the body curled up in the shade of a very large boulder. When Noelle views the body, she finds several discrepancies that leads her to believe the death was not an accident.

Miriam Oliviari is a Tracker who has come to the Armstrong Marathon looking for Frieda Tey, a medical researcher who has been accused of exposing a group of subjects to a rapidly mutating virus and then cold bloodily observing their struggles and deaths. Miriam has joined the marathon staff as a contract medic in order to collect DNA samples from various suspects. She knows of an incident on the course, but is not concerned since it was reported as a male runner.

These three cases rapidly converge into a single disaster. Noelle gets to show her administrative talents, Miriam displays her leadership abilities, and Miles performs a hot pursuit in space. This rapidly moving story is an excellent sequel to The Disappeared, but sets such a high standard that it may prove a hard act to follow.

Highly recommended to Rusch fans and anyone else who enjoys fast moving suspense stories with twist after twist.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I picked this up on a whim and was surprised at how well it blends a near future setting with the police procedural mystery style. A good novel for fans of both genres.

Rauch plays fair with the science and the mystery. Since the reader is privy to information from three different investigators, he or she may well solve plot points ahead of the heroes, but not so far ahead as make the story slow or unsatisfying.

Certainly worth a read in these dog-days of summer.

I picked up this volume during the "speed shopping" portion of a visit to the bookstore with my son (3 1/2). I didn't expect much from it, so it was a pleasant surprise to get a decently crafted police procedural/detective story coupled with SF. This is a neglected form of science fiction and a good addition is a great blessing.

The book is a bit weak in some areas. The ending is a bit muddled. There are some gaps in this book's exposition that might be explained by the previous volume (which, thank heavens, is not at all necessary to enjoy this one). The writer is a bit more familiar with the mystery genre than with SF. The SF bits aren't very crisp and feel borrowed. The setting on the moon was handled more deftly, for example, in Niven's Patchwork Girl.

But there is a lot here to like. The characters aren't nitwits. The puzzle is pretty good. There's nothing sloppy about the book and the writing is genuinely gripping in many places. I recommend it and will go back and get the previous volume when I get the chance.

Extremes is an SF mystery set on the Moon, a sequel to Rusch's 2002 novel The Disappeared. It's competent, readable, but on several grounds not quite convincing and somewhat disappointing in resolution. It's a sturdy commercial work but nothing memorable.

Extremes is told in three narrative threads. One follows Miles Flint, the Retrieval Artist of the overall series title. His job is to track down people who have "disappeared" -- basically, people who have taken on new identities. Flint is approached by a law firm to track down one Frieda Tey, a human Disappeared accused of killing some 200 people by introducing a genetically-engineered virus into an outsystem dome. However, she and her father (who engaged the law firm) claim that the deaths were accidental and she is being railroaded.

Another thread follows Noelle DeRicci, a cliché "maverick" cop (i.e. she's really good but her career is stalled because she won't play politics) who is assigned to investigate a death at the annual "Moon Marathon", a standard length marathon run on the Moon's surface in environment suits. The third thread follows Miriam Oliviari, a "Tracker" looking for Frieda Tey. Miriam has tracked Frieda Tey over several years, and she has decided that Tey is one of the Moon Marathon competitors.

No prizes for guessing who the murder victim at the Moon Marathon is identified as.

The three threads begin to coalesce once the principals realize that besides the murder the Moon Marathon is being disrupted by an outbreak of a virus very much resembling the virus that killed all the people Tey was accused of killing. Oliviari realizes the same thing, and as her cover identity is one of the marathon medical team, she is forced to deal directly with the virus outbreak -- an outbreak she may know more about than anyone because of her research into Tey's past. So the novel continues, with DeRicci dealing with a very unusual murder and an epidemic to boot, and Oliviari forced to compromise her chance to catch Tey in order to save lives; while Flint is also forced to compromise his Retrieval Artist ethics. All ends in a thrilling space chase.

On one level, it's exciting stuff. The ending is pretty scary and well set up. The basic mystery is interesting. The novel is a whole is fast moving and good reading. But nothing really makes much sense! Part of my problem is just economics -- I simply cannot believe there are enough Disappeared and enough associated legacies and stuff to support the apparently thriving business of Retrieval Artists, and the incredible fees they charge. (Flint, for example, is set for life as a result of a previous case.) Part of it is the overblown villainy of the eventually revealed bad guy. Part of it is the strained setup of the original crime, depending on just too many coincidences. Part of it is the mechanics of the whole thing -- Flint's computer security skills, for instance, which as presented might as well be magic. Part of it is the structure -- the novel is supposed to be a Retrieval Artist Novel, but Flint's Retrieval Artist skills basically never come into play. Read the book quickly without thinking much and I think you'll be entertained -- but pull on any of the dangling threads and the whole thing collapses.

"The Extremes" was gripping enough to read in one sitting. Characters are (mostly) well-drawn, but the backstory is odd, there are annoying logic-lapses, and Rusch keeps throwing in weird little over-the-top melodrama bits to break your mood. Worthwhile overall, but needed another edit.

Google for these full reviews, both more positive:

Rusch's cast is all good, with a stand-out villain -- think of an intelligent and chillingly persuasive cross between a mad scientist and Ayn Rand. It's a particularly impressive portrayal, given that the villain doesn't step on stage until almost the last chapter, so her portrait is entirely drawn second hand through other characters. -- Donna McMahon, SF Site

Rusch delivers a very readable and thought-provoking novel that satisfies the reader in just about every possible way. Buy and enjoy." -- Tom Easton, Analog

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

Combine a detective story revolving around a detective who always gets the worst assignments and a fellow investigator who is just feeling his way after buying the business of investigating and you have an engrossing story revolving around a murderous scientist's dangerous experiment during a moon race. The Moon's Extreme Marathon is an event which draws thousands - and the perfect setting for a dangerous scientist's ongoing experiment with human lives. It's up to two renegade investigators to stop her in this engrossing story.

because of the complicated structure of this story, it doesn't really get moving until well after the halfway point. but rusch creates characters and situations that are compelling enough to carry the reader through. more than a few surprises, sympathetic and unusual characters, and conflicts that make the reader evaluate her own positions on various themes all make me glad i have more retrieval artist books to read.

Now that I've finished Extremes, I'm quite happy I've found a new series to read. Ms. Rusch's characters are what draws me in the most. The setting is rather generic, and in this outing there's no alien cultures to work with. The mad scientist angle could be played out anywhere at almost any time.

Oliviari, the tracker, and Detective DeRicci made this book what it is. Miles may be the namesake of the series, but he's outshined by his former partner and the secondary characters in these stories.

In the far distant future, mankind has treaties with at least fifty alien species because Earth and her colonies want to trade with them, humanity is subject to their laws. If a person has run afoul of an alien species and doesn't want to be held accountable under alien law, they disappear. Retrieval Artist Miles Flint, based in the Armstrong Dome on the moon, searches for the Disappeared for matters they left unfinished but don't hand them in to the law.

People, agencies and governments hire trackers to find the disappeared and hand them over the proper authorities. Tracker Miran Oliviari has come to the Moon Marathon run outside the dome to see if she can find Frieda Tey in her new identity as a business entrepreneur. She is wanted for the murder for the killing of many people in a scientific experiment gone awry. Before the Tracker can confront her prey, police detective Noelle Ricci investigates the murder of a marathon runner that Oliviari believes was Tey. Flint comes into the scenario when a client hires him to find Tey; a job that almost gets him killed when he figures out who she really is and where she is going.

Unlike the first book in this series, THE DISAPPEARED, there are no aliens residing on the pages of this novel. This is a medical thriller police procedural set in the future with humans judging their own. The antagonist of Extremes uses smoke and mirrors to conduct an illegal and unethical scientific experiment and in the confession, disappears. Only one person will find her and the person who blinks first will die.

Harriet Klausner

This was my first Rusch novel. I was all set to like it, based on the good comments I have heard about her work. The ideas certainly are good, but the writing, pacing and characterization are only competent, at best. Promising story lines start out and then fade away without a second look (the first lawyer, the law firm and the two brothers). Events in the second half read as though she were writing directly from an outline in order to meet a deadline. While I respect anyone who has been able to create a successful writing career, as a reader I had one question after finishing - "what does this book add to my reading experience, or science fiction as a whole?" My answer, I'm sorry to say, is "not much."