Version 43 [Paperback]

Philip Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2010

The Exodus Universe.

Your odds of surviving quantum teleportation are, more or less, fifty/fifty. The only ones crazy enough to try it are the desperate, the insane, and those sentenced to exile for their crimes.

Belladonna is home to the survivors of the fifty/fifty-- and is therefore a planet run by criminals and thieves. But when a horrific and improbable murder catches the attention of the Galactic Police force, one cyborg cop -- Version 43 -- is sent to investigate.

Version 43 has been here before and has old friends and older enemies lying in wait. The cop was human once, but now, he is more program than man and will find a way to clean up this planet once and for all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in Bompasso City, also known as Lawless City, on the planet Belladonna, cyborg narrator The Cop Version 43 is sent by the government of the Solar Neighbourhood to investigate a mass murder. Like many of the Exodus Universe planets, Belladonna was colonized by convicts, the insane, and the desperate; so a corrupt mayor and gang leaders who specialize in assassinations, prostitutes, and black-market organs are de rigueur. Version 43 deals swift (if faulty) justice, and is promptly blown up. Good thing Version 44 (same narrator, different version) is standing by! Meanwhile in deep space, the hive-minded Sand-Rats who live in six dimensions (three in space and three in time) have decided to declare interstellar war on humanity...or at least the original rat mind has. The five other species minds in the hive have literally been consumed by The First, depicted in the novel through a series of hilarious flow-charts graphic illustrations. As the various criminal elements burn through one Galactic Cop Version after another and the Hive Rats draw ever nearer, who will save humanity? British TV scribe Palmer's (Red Claw) Sci-Fi epic reads like Rudy Rucker collaborating with Olaf Stapledon on an Ed McBain novel with sweeping galactic history, silly (yet nearly believable) science, pitched battles, plenty of sardonic humor, and a serial investigation by a lonely cyborg.

About the Author

Philip Palmer's first novel was Debatable Space (Orbit, 2008) and this was followed by Red Claw (Orbit, 2009). He has previously written for film, TV, and theater. Find out more about Philip Palmer at www.philippalmer.net.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (October 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316018945
• ISBN-13: 978-0316018944
• Product Dimensions: 1.4 x 5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,177,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars smart, funny, witty and an entertaining read April 12, 2011

By wheeeeee

Format:Paperback

Cyborgs and Death Rays and force fields and jet boots and millions of spaceships blowing up, Oh My!

This novel is a action comedy sci-fi film-noire cyberpunk detective novel mashup, opening with a murder in time tested manner.

I heartily recommend it. The author while munging all of these genres together, and playing up the various cliches, manages to write an entertaining novel that still has deeper elements that can be examined and thought about.

One can linger over the thought of Version 43's well intentioned but heavy handed pursuit of justice and the havoc it wreaks when it is not tempered by any compassion, all the while being entertained by the language and dialog which made me laugh out loud from time to time.

I read this book over about 24 hours, I could barely put it down... it was a great relief to read this novel and not have it be Book I of the First Trilogy of the Foo Cycle and have everything drag out in a process intended to suck hundreds of dollars out of my pocket over decades in a never ending poorly written melodrama that I'd be committed to to just see how it eventually ends.

This is a book with strong characterization, funny dialog, interesting ideas, and for the first time in a long time I delighted in every character.

Please understand that it's clearly intended to touch on many cliches, and does so in a fond way.

I bought this book based on reading a strong short story by this novelist, and I'm very glad I did. I'll happily buy whatever else he's got available to read now...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars refreshing January 18, 2011

By Allyson O

Format:Paperback

It was definitely one of the most interestingly laid-out books I've read, and I enjoyed the storyline and Palmer's writing style. I found a lot of it quite humorous, and felt the plot was pretty strong from beginning to end. Cool crime noir/sci-fi, with themes of the frontier, power, corruption, morality, and humanity. I don't want to give too many details on the plot since part of the fun in reading this came with the amount of surprises I experienced throughout.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Never say die April 1, 2011

By L. Wilson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Where is the line between human and machine? Or is there one? At least one difference is that an android can survive being destroyed.

This is just one of the ideas explored in this interesting novel. Overall, it was fun, but it could have used a little more editing to remove a few pages of unneeded verbiage and to tighten the plot.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Pulp Science Fiction March 3, 2011

By Mark Locy

Format:Paperback

Version 43 is a cyborg cop with a bad job, uncover a mass murderer on a planet where crime is the government and corruption is ubiquitous. Lucky for him, he's a machine with a lot of assets, mostly hidden rocket launchers and laser cannons.

If you aren't expecting a mind-shattering, world-altering, perception-changing experience (and frankly, as a lifelong consumer of science-fiction, there aren't that many books like that anyway), this book is top notch. The author mixes noir detective style with pulpy sci-fi technology and a smattering of X-Files-like conspiracy in a way that I found absolutely delightful. I was never bored, and I took each plot twist in stride. Hell, plot twists are a mainstay of this work, and never was I disappointed.

Some people would say, this is just pulp. In a world where millions gather to watch Jersey Shore and Real Housewives, this book stands as a paragon of what pulp can be. Again, don't expect anything mind-bending, just expect an awesome romp around a crime-vexed world and a robo-cop with laser eyes.

5.0 out of 5 stars Palmer's third outing is less frenetic than predecessors. June 18, 2013

By gerry_villa

Format:Paperback

Palmer's first novel, Debatable Space, was such a crazy (no hyperbole) ride that I immediately read Red Claw and was thoroughly amused by the increased level of creativity therein.

Now, with Version 43, we have a more restrained Philip Palmer. The craziness is still there; the inventiveness is just as head shake inducing; what is lacking is a sense of rushed hysteria. This is a good thing.

It is set in the Debatable Space universe. The protagonist is a cyborg cop with a human template (you know, because humans have that elusive intuition that computers can't mimic) who, at the start of the book, is labeled Version 43 (as in, he's died in the line of duty 42 previous times) and has been sent to the planet Belladonna to solve a grizzly murder.

The grizzly murder involves a group of people who've been killed in a very unorthodox way. They were undone and redone (at a quantum level) and when they were redone . . . well, Humpty Dumpty probably had a better chance.

Palmer may not be the best writer, but his books are the most fun I've had this year.

3.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes Good Far-Future SciFi January 24, 2013

By Stewart Teaze

Format:Paperback

VERSION 43 (2010) is an inconsistent (sometimes good, sometimes bad) far-future SciFi tale of a "series" of Cyborg Galactic Cops, assigned to investigate and "clean up" rampant crime on a back-water planet, who get sent the criminals of society (in a 50/50 chance at survival from "death sentences" for serious crimes). There are at least three main plots intertwined, and they all come to a rather unbelievable crescendo at the end of the book.

Based on this book, I can't say I recommend or don't recommend the author's works - it will take me at least one more sample to make a decision.