5.0 out of 5 stars
What a FUN read!!!, March 4, 2009
This review is from: Metered Space (Paperback)
A hard boiled PI meets the Twilight Zone, kind of. Our PI doesn't carry a gun, like Sam Spade, but when he falls for a dame, she's a tough cookie & he falls all the way, like Mike Hammer. Toss in dimensional space travel & a really smart, nasty villain & you have a fast paced, fun read.
The characters were well done. Not cliched completely, but all well drawn with logical motives, faults & idiosyncrasies. Our hero isn't superman nor is he perfect, but he's a pretty likable guy with some almost fatal flaws. The villain is almost too smart & egocentric, but he keeps the pace moving & provides plenty of twists as the story progresses.
All in all, it was a fun read & a complete book in itself, although there are additional books in the series. I look forward to reading them.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Meet Jack Meter, March 17, 2007
This review is from: Metered Space (Paperback)
PI Jack Meter is not a happy man. His beloved girlfriend, Annie, has been dead two years, and he was so traumatized by her sudden and violent death that he had been institutionalised for all that time. But no sooner has he returned to his old haunts than he gets transported to an alien world where strange creatures called the Thrittene try to engage his help in finding a thief whom they claim stole something of vast importance to them. With their help, Jack gets transported to other alien worlds, each stranger than the one before, and all the aliens he encounters tell more or less the same story. A male human had stolen something vital from them and now their worlds, all somehow connected, are becoming unbalanced.
From his communications with these aliens, Jack comes to realize that Annie, a research scientist, had been involved in the logistics of world-to-world travel prior to her death. As Jack tries to hunt down the human responsible for the theft of essential pieces of all the alien worlds, he becomes embroiled in the very real physical dangers that inter-world travel entails. As for the culprit, he's intelligent and arrogant, and has plans that will shock the world-weary Jack into decisive action, even if it breaks his heart and sears his soul.
The voice of the novel is very much hard-boiled PI detective fiction (think Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton). However, the meat of the novel is decidedly Sci Fi. Metered Space is a fast-paced, action-packed ride that propels you, ready or not, from one strange alien world to exponentially stranger ones.
From the imagination of SciFi author, M. D. Benoit, has already come the next instalment in the Jack Meter series, Meter Made. I've already started on it. All I can say is that it's even more intriguing (a whole building gone missing and no-one the wiser?) and even more of a frantic ride than Metered Space.
A cross-genre, fast-paced, Sci Fi novel that's as original as they come, Metered Space
will appeal to science fiction readers who love reading about aliens and inter-world travel. With its sympathetic, albeit smart-mouthed, protagonist, and a host of well-developed characters, both human and alien, Metered Space will give you reason to mete out space in your time to read this novel in one or two sittings.
Jack Meter has his own official blog at [...]. Go check him out--this hard-boiled, world-weary PI has a distinctive voice and style that will either make you chuckle or make you want to tell him to seek much-needed therapy.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Metered Space - PI Noir meets Sci-Fi, December 9, 2006
This review is from: Metered Space (Paperback)
This book was a fun read. Watching a down and out PI, who's given up on life suddenly have to take on being healed by aliens and travel to other worlds in search of a thief, while trying to dig out the truth being hidden from him by his clients is a great mix of the PI Noir and Science Fiction. The plot moves quickly, and plenty of surprises and complications crop up to keep Jack and the readers hopping. Great prose and descriptions, plus a hard edged, softy of a PI you can't help but like.
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