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Coren Lanra is the head of security for DyNan Manual Industries. A former Special Service agent, he's never cared for bureaucracy, piracy, or deception. And he hates mysteries. Lanra's troubles begin with the death of Nyom Looms, daughter of DyNan president Rega Looms, during an ill-fated mission to smuggle illegal immigrants from Earth to the colony Nova Levis-all were apparently murdered, but why? The only clue might be contained within the positronic brain of a robot that had accompanied the victims, but it has been deactivated, and Lanra is denied access to its memories. With the help of roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, Lanra searches for the identity of a killer, before more lives are lost. Coren Lanra is the head of security for DyNan Manual Industries. A former Special Service agent, he's never cared for bureaucracy, piracy, or deception. And he hates mysteries. Lanra's troubles begin with the death of Nyom Looms, daughter of DyNan president Rega Looms, during an ill-fated mission to smuggle illegal immigrants from Earth to the colony Nova Levis-all were apparently murdered, but why? The only clue might be contained within the positronic brain of a robot that had accompanied the victims, but it has been deactivated, and Lanra is denied access to its memories. With the help of roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, Lanra searches for the identity of a killer, before more lives are lost.
463 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
3 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
About the author
Mark W. Tiedemann
68 books95 followersAlso credited as Mark Tiedemann and M. William Tiedemann.
Mark W. Tiedemann has published twelve novels---three in the Asimov's Robot Universe series, /Mirage, Chimera /and/ Aurora/---three in his own Secantis Sequence, /Compass Reach, Metal of Night, /and /Peace & Memory/---as well as stand-alones /Realtime, Hour of the Wolf/ (a Terminator novel), and /Remains/, plus /Of Stars & Shadows/, one of the Yard Dog Doubledog series, Logic of Departure, and the historical novel Granger's Crossing. As well, he has published over seventy-five short stories, all this between 1990 and 2023. /Compass Reach/ was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002 and /Remains /was shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award in 2006.
For five years he served as president of the Missouri Center for the Book (http://books.missouri.org) from which position he has recently stepped down. He is now concentrating on writing new novels, a few short stories, and stirring a little chaos in the blogosphere at DangerousIntersection.org and his own blog at MarkTiedemann.com
Oh, he still does a little photography and has started dabbling in art again after a long hiatus.
Mark W. Tiedemann has published twelve novels---three in the Asimov's Robot Universe series, /Mirage, Chimera /and/ Aurora/---three in his own Secantis Sequence, /Compass Reach, Metal of Night, /and /Peace & Memory/---as well as stand-alones /Realtime, Hour of the Wolf/ (a Terminator novel), and /Remains/, plus /Of Stars & Shadows/, one of the Yard Dog Doubledog series, Logic of Departure, and the historical novel Granger's Crossing. As well, he has published over seventy-five short stories, all this between 1990 and 2023. /Compass Reach/ was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002 and /Remains /was shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award in 2006.
For five years he served as president of the Missouri Center for the Book (http://books.missouri.org) from which position he has recently stepped down. He is now concentrating on writing new novels, a few short stories, and stirring a little chaos in the blogosphere at DangerousIntersection.org and his own blog at MarkTiedemann.com
Oh, he still does a little photography and has started dabbling in art again after a long hiatus.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 16, 2022
Like other books in Tiedemann's Robot Mystery series, this is set in the universe created by Isaac Asimov that stretches from I, Robot through the end of the Galactic Empire and into the time of the Second Foundation. The period of these mysteries is decades after the stories that featured Earth detective Lije Baley and his robot colleague R. Daneel Olivaw. In that time, spacefarers from Earth had left the mother world and established fifty "Spacer" colonies, which had then flourished and surpassed Earth in technological progress while Earth suffered a bout of regressivism that led to populations moving into underground megacities and rejecting all forms of robotics and artificial intelligence. This was reversed somewhat after Lije Baley's lifetime when his son, Bentley, led a second diaspora of immigrants to found new colonies known as the Settler worlds. So the three main factions in this milieu are Earthers, Spacers, and Settlers, none of whom particularly like each other ery much but who realize that some commerce and exchange is better for everyone.
This story takes place about a year after the events of book #1 in the series, Mirage, which are referred to frequently. It's not strictly necessary to read that book or the Robot City series, though it helps when those references are made. We learn that Earth authorities are worried about the drain on talent and wealth posed by people emigrating from Earth to the Settler worlds (the Spacers would never allow immigration from Earth). After a brief flashback which will make sense by the end of the book, events open as a shuttle full of such emigrants--called "baleys"--reaches Kopernik Station in Earth orbit but is found to have been breached, and all the occupants dead. The rest of the story follows the investigation by detective Coren Lanra, roboticist Derec Avery, and Ambassador Ariel Burgess from the Spacer world of Aurora into the reason for the attack, and the perpetrator(s).
The story ends up being a lot more interesting as you get deeper into it, but I can't explain why without spoilers. It has to do with Asimov's original premise of all robots being governed by the Three Laws of Robotics. In this book, as in Mirage, Tiedemann explores and pushes the boundaries of those laws and their implications.
I think that Tiedemann, as he did in Mirage, overcomplicates corporate and political background factors a little too much and it becomes very hard to follow the web of interconnected people and companies. In this book, however, I think it was a little more necessary for him to do this because if motivations were more straightforward, someone else would have already figured things out. So you may need to draw yourself a diagram, or just try to remember the major players and wait for the interesting conclusion. After a rigorous simplification of the plot, this would make a great movie script.
This story takes place about a year after the events of book #1 in the series, Mirage, which are referred to frequently. It's not strictly necessary to read that book or the Robot City series, though it helps when those references are made. We learn that Earth authorities are worried about the drain on talent and wealth posed by people emigrating from Earth to the Settler worlds (the Spacers would never allow immigration from Earth). After a brief flashback which will make sense by the end of the book, events open as a shuttle full of such emigrants--called "baleys"--reaches Kopernik Station in Earth orbit but is found to have been breached, and all the occupants dead. The rest of the story follows the investigation by detective Coren Lanra, roboticist Derec Avery, and Ambassador Ariel Burgess from the Spacer world of Aurora into the reason for the attack, and the perpetrator(s).
The story ends up being a lot more interesting as you get deeper into it, but I can't explain why without spoilers. It has to do with Asimov's original premise of all robots being governed by the Three Laws of Robotics. In this book, as in Mirage, Tiedemann explores and pushes the boundaries of those laws and their implications.
I think that Tiedemann, as he did in Mirage, overcomplicates corporate and political background factors a little too much and it becomes very hard to follow the web of interconnected people and companies. In this book, however, I think it was a little more necessary for him to do this because if motivations were more straightforward, someone else would have already figured things out. So you may need to draw yourself a diagram, or just try to remember the major players and wait for the interesting conclusion. After a rigorous simplification of the plot, this would make a great movie script.
Read
July 13, 2019Isaac new Asimov's Robot Mysteries, by Mark W. Tiedemann:
Mirage - Mark W. Tiedemann (2000) Chimera - Mark W. Tiedemann (2001) Aurora - Mark W. Tiedemann (2002) Have Robot, Will Travel - Alexander C. Irvine (2004)
About this book:
Coren Lanra is the head of security for Dynan Manuel Industries. A former Special Service sgent he's never cared for bureaucracy, piracy or deception. And he hates mysteries. Lanra's troubles begin with the death of Nyron Looms, daughter of Dynan president Rega Looms, during an ill-fated mission to smuggle illegal immigrants from Earth to the colony Nova Levis- all were apparently murdered, but why? The only clue might be contained within the positronic brain of a robot that had accompanied the victims, but it has been deactivated and Lanra is denied access to its memories. To make matters even worse, he is soon confronted with a puzzling complication: a possible connection between the murders and twenty babies who were snatched from an orphanage over two decades ago. With the help of roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess- whom the security chief had aided in exposing an anti-robot conspiracy on Earth a year before- Lanra searches for an answers to a twenty-five year-old mystery...and for the identity of a killer, before more lives are lost.
January 5, 2023
Nice mix of hardboiled and scifi over a little background of Asimov.
This works as a page turner, a sequel to the previous book, and as a set-up for the next one. Nothing to complain about.
This works as a page turner, a sequel to the previous book, and as a set-up for the next one. Nothing to complain about.
April 15, 2013
The idea of this book goes against everything Asimov wrote about in regards to robots. He was firmly against the idea that robots should be feared. I can't imagine how his estate ever approved the writing of this book.
To make matters worse, the writing in this book is even worse than the first one. The names the author creates for the characters would make J. K. Rowling laugh in their absurdity. He also constantly uses certain words that just plain don't make sense in the circumstances.
The supposed "mystery" in this book is only a mystery in the sense that you have no idea what in the world is happening 90% of the time. You can't relate to the characters or locations in any way, so it can be quite hard to follow what is happening.
And lastly, the absurd love stories were completely out of place and a waste of about 3 pages.
I am dreading the final book in the trilogy, but alas my OCD won't let me skip it...
To make matters worse, the writing in this book is even worse than the first one. The names the author creates for the characters would make J. K. Rowling laugh in their absurdity. He also constantly uses certain words that just plain don't make sense in the circumstances.
The supposed "mystery" in this book is only a mystery in the sense that you have no idea what in the world is happening 90% of the time. You can't relate to the characters or locations in any way, so it can be quite hard to follow what is happening.
And lastly, the absurd love stories were completely out of place and a waste of about 3 pages.
I am dreading the final book in the trilogy, but alas my OCD won't let me skip it...
April 14, 2013
This novel is the second of a trilogy (with Mirage and Aurora) set in Asimov's Robot/Foundation universe. Each of the constituent novels is also a locked room mystery of some kind.
The basic story is good (better than Mirage) and gets into another fascinating exploration of the line between robot and person.
While this book is a sequel and some important characters carry over, there is very little structural connection. This feels more like another freestanding novel. Yet again, this novel leaves a lot of untied threads for the third book, and the ending is again unsatisfying for this reason. Tiedemann raises too many interesting developments that go unexplored.
Another good book in an existing universe.
The basic story is good (better than Mirage) and gets into another fascinating exploration of the line between robot and person.
While this book is a sequel and some important characters carry over, there is very little structural connection. This feels more like another freestanding novel. Yet again, this novel leaves a lot of untied threads for the third book, and the ending is again unsatisfying for this reason. Tiedemann raises too many interesting developments that go unexplored.
Another good book in an existing universe.
April 21, 2013
While this story fits perfectly in the Asimov robot series, it is nothing more than a murder mystery set in Asimov's world. It does nothing toward advancing the technology or science of robots. In a vain attempt to show his technology prowess, once and only once, he places some mathematical symbols in an attempt to be technical. He tries to play them off as references to the mathematical topic of Topology.
I wanted to read all three of these but after the first one, I gave away all of them.
I wanted to read all three of these but after the first one, I gave away all of them.
August 2, 2016
One of those books that's three times longer than it should have been.
People share the same information over and over, have the same insights, the story is progressively more obvious, and all in all it's pretty disappointing.
People share the same information over and over, have the same insights, the story is progressively more obvious, and all in all it's pretty disappointing.
October 11, 2011
excellent book
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews