Customer Reviews

Long Arm Gil Hamilton

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

 

 

Gil Hamilton : 1 Death By Ecstasy - Larry Niven
Gil Hamilton : 2 The Defenseless Dead - Larry Niven
Gil Hamilton : 3 ARM - Larry Niven
Gil Hamilton : 4 The Patchwork Girl - Larry Niven
Gil Hamilton : 5 The Woman in Del Rey Crater - Larry Niven


A series of mysteries about a detective that has developed a telekinetic ability in place of an arm that he has lost.

He utilises this talent while solving these problems, in a world that is basically indulging in institutionalised organlegging to keep the haves happy.

Grab your attention! Get it?!? Oh, never mind.

Larry Niven created one of the most memorable uses of psionic powers ever when he created Gil Hamilton. The stories are fun and engaging. A great read.

I read these stories years ago and they stuck in my mind. So much so, in fact, that I bought another copy to read them again.

Five stars for the way they grab you.

I loved this book! It's actually a collection of three stories
centered around ARM (Amalgamation of Regional Militia) agent
Gilbert Gilgamesh Hamilton (Gil The Arm). Born in Topeka, Kansas, to
Flatlander parents near the end of the 21st century, he emigrates to the
Belt as soon as he becomes an adult. There he begins work on an arduous
ten year apprenticeship towards the acquisition of his singleship
licence. During this time he works as a member of small multi-person
crews.

After completing several successful trips, Gil loses his right arm. While
attempting to move an asteroid with explosives, crew leader "Cubes"
Forsythe miscalculates, which results in the destruction of the valuable
rock. A fast moving piece of shrapnel penetrates the ship, slicing off
Gil's arm and killing Forsythe instantly. The remaining crewmember, Owen
Jennison, quickly seals the hull breach, stops Gil's bleeding, and
manages to get him to life-saving medical facilities in time.

While recouperating from his injury, Gil broods over his future as a
Belter. Their ship is missing a crew member, Gil is missing an arm, and
Owen's reputation is ruined due to the fact that he took (what Belters
consider) unacceptable risks to get Gil back to safety.

In the low gravity of Ceres base, Gil discovers that he has a psi power.
His brain, still remembering the "image" of his lost arm, can use it much
as he did his own arm. He could feel and manipulate objects via ESP and
telekinesis, respectively. Finding a third crewman, Homer Chandrasekhar,
they make several highly profitable trips over the following year. Gil
finds his "imaginary arm", though not strong, to be an asset, as he can
reach through walls, and accomplish tasks beyond the ability of a normal
person. After six months, Gil has earned enough to repay all his medical
fees, with a comfortable cash reserve left over.

Despite much disapproval from Owen and Homer, Gil decides to return to
Earth and seek to get his citizenship back. On Earth, he can easily get a
transplant to replace his missing arm. In the Belt he would have to pay
exorbitantly high fees for a transplant, or settle for a prosthetic. Gil,
by a quirk of his own nature, can not live with a prosthetic.

Gil receives his new arm, but finds he can still dissociate his imaginary
arm from his real one, and reach through walls, flesh, and even vidphone
screens. Shortly afterward, Gil finds out that his new arm had not come
from a condemned criminal as he had hoped, but from the captured stock
of "organleggers", black market dealers in illicit organ transplants.

To make amends, Gil joins the ARM, the elite global police force.

As an ARM, Hamilton is a high-tech detective, who hunts organleggers and
other criminals for a living. With his unusual psi power, he is
formidable and highly feared among his enemies.

This is a collection of three stories. It is funny to read a detective story set in the science fiction world. A nice afterword by Mr. Niven explains this and more. Mr Hamilton is an agent for Amalgamated Regional Militias (ARM, of course). But, in an interesting oddity, he lost an arm in an accident and gained an ethereal arm (psychokinetic), as well as a replacement from some dead person.
'Death by Ecstasy' is a future drug use story. An associate of Mr. Hamilton is found dead in a room by himself. There were enough oddities that Mr. Hamilton and the regular police detective were suspicious that it might be murder. It is a 'locked room' mystery: no one could get in or out, so how ws it done? They figure it out and get the bad guy.
I seem to remember something like this in another story. I just do not remember that it was this story.
'The Defenseless Dead' develops the theme of using dead or near dead people for spare parts for living people, like arms, livers, retinas, etc. There are legal and illegal sources of these organs and most of Mr. Hamilton's working time is used in finding the illegal organ suppliers.
In this story he is trying to figure out why one of those folks would shoot at him. This leads him to another mystery: why were two kids kidnapped a couple of years ago, what happened to them and are they to be attacked again?
'Arm' investigates the death of a rich inventor because he was working on a device that could be used as a weapon. It is another 'locked room' mystery.