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Retrieval Artist #1
The Disappeared
In a universe where humans and aliens co-exist and have formed a loose government called the Earth Alliance, treaties guarantee that humans are subject to alien laws when on alien soil. But alien laws often make no sense, where murder is sanctioned, and where no one can find safe haven, and the punishments vary from loss of life to loss of a first-born child. One group of private detectives is willing to help the "Disappeared". Meet the Retrieval Artists, private detectives who help the lost return home.
Meet Miles Flint. His occupation: Retrieval Artist. His job: Hunt down the Disappeared, outlaws on the run, wanted for crimes against alien cultures. The catch: Flint isn't working on the side of the law. Miles becomes embroiled in a bizarre case involving a stolen spaceyacht filled with dead bodies...a triple murder, the kidnapping of two human children, and a woman on the run.
Flint must enforce the law, giving the children to aliens, solving the murders, and arresting the woman for trying to save her own life. But how is a man supposed to enforce laws that are unjust? How can he sacrifice innocents to a system he's not sure he believes in? How can Miles Flint do the right thing in a universe where the right thing is very, very wrong?
Meet Miles Flint. His occupation: Retrieval Artist. His job: Hunt down the Disappeared, outlaws on the run, wanted for crimes against alien cultures. The catch: Flint isn't working on the side of the law. Miles becomes embroiled in a bizarre case involving a stolen spaceyacht filled with dead bodies...a triple murder, the kidnapping of two human children, and a woman on the run.
Flint must enforce the law, giving the children to aliens, solving the murders, and arresting the woman for trying to save her own life. But how is a man supposed to enforce laws that are unjust? How can he sacrifice innocents to a system he's not sure he believes in? How can Miles Flint do the right thing in a universe where the right thing is very, very wrong?
374 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
206 people are currently reading
2270 people want to read
About the author
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
1,364 books720 followersKristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists –even in London– and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 280 reviews
January 13, 2019
He was amazed that something so beautiful could be so dangerous.
This book was just a total pleasure to read.
The premise here is quite simple: in order to co-exist with the Alien cultures in the galaxy, and for commercial and political gain, humanity has to adhere to the laws and regulations laid down by the different Alien civilizations. Inter species crimes are judged by a multi “cultural” tribunal, and if guilt against a human is determined, a warrant is issued. This whole setup is bad news for humans, since the various Alien punishments are extremely harsh. There’s also no such thing as mitigating circumstances, which means that guilt can be assigned even to those who are blissfully ignorant.
The Disappeared of the title are “sentenced” humans who are quite literally secreted away by Disappearing Agencies. This, of course, is illegal, and human law enforcement agencies are required to follow the law to the letter, which often means handing over humans for alien punishment, even if there is a chance that these humans are innocent.
So. It is obvious that humans have gotten the short and ugly end of the stick in this arrangement. Don’t believe me? Read this book!
[He] felt his heart lurch. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that this was his job.
The Disappeared is a study in grey moral areas, and will twist the way you perceive what is just and fair to a ridiculous extent. I have never read anything quite like this: it’s a very different kind of police procedural and also an interstellar legal thriller dealing with some pretty complicated legal and ethical issues.
“The Rev usually don't lie, so we can rely on what they tell us."
"They also have a nasty way of taking matters into their own hands if they don't get what they want.”
The novel takes a good hard look at the impact of differences between cultures. Obviously it’s been extrapolated to the extreme, but it got me thinking. The prose dispenses with unnecessary exposition, leaving the story clear and concise. This adds to the general feel of the novel. It reads very quickly and I recommend it to anybody who wants to read a Science Fiction novel that is just totally different from the many other ones out there. The Disappeared is the first in the Retrieval Artist series.
”That creates a problem that could become some kind of weird interstellar incident. You can blame me for anything that goes wrong, but please, please stop this from getting worse." ”
Added to Favourites
This book was just a total pleasure to read.
The premise here is quite simple: in order to co-exist with the Alien cultures in the galaxy, and for commercial and political gain, humanity has to adhere to the laws and regulations laid down by the different Alien civilizations. Inter species crimes are judged by a multi “cultural” tribunal, and if guilt against a human is determined, a warrant is issued. This whole setup is bad news for humans, since the various Alien punishments are extremely harsh. There’s also no such thing as mitigating circumstances, which means that guilt can be assigned even to those who are blissfully ignorant.
The Disappeared of the title are “sentenced” humans who are quite literally secreted away by Disappearing Agencies. This, of course, is illegal, and human law enforcement agencies are required to follow the law to the letter, which often means handing over humans for alien punishment, even if there is a chance that these humans are innocent.
So. It is obvious that humans have gotten the short and ugly end of the stick in this arrangement. Don’t believe me? Read this book!
[He] felt his heart lurch. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that this was his job.
The Disappeared is a study in grey moral areas, and will twist the way you perceive what is just and fair to a ridiculous extent. I have never read anything quite like this: it’s a very different kind of police procedural and also an interstellar legal thriller dealing with some pretty complicated legal and ethical issues.
“The Rev usually don't lie, so we can rely on what they tell us."
"They also have a nasty way of taking matters into their own hands if they don't get what they want.”
The novel takes a good hard look at the impact of differences between cultures. Obviously it’s been extrapolated to the extreme, but it got me thinking. The prose dispenses with unnecessary exposition, leaving the story clear and concise. This adds to the general feel of the novel. It reads very quickly and I recommend it to anybody who wants to read a Science Fiction novel that is just totally different from the many other ones out there. The Disappeared is the first in the Retrieval Artist series.
”That creates a problem that could become some kind of weird interstellar incident. You can blame me for anything that goes wrong, but please, please stop this from getting worse." ”
Added to Favourites
September 5, 2024
Fun, pulpy read by Rusch, which reads more like an introduction to a series than a standalone novel, and indeed, it seems Rusch extended this series into over a dozen sequels. Our main protagonist, Miles Flint, starts the novel working as a detective in the Moon's Armstrong dome, after working years in traffic. The story takes a bit to get going as Rusch at first jumps around to several POVs to introduce the supporting characters of the tale.
Set in the relatively new future, Humanity encountered an entire host of aliens who populate the sector of the galaxy. The 'Earth Alliance', the governing body of humanity, which includes Earth of course, and the far flung colonies in the solar system and beyond, made trade agreements with the aliens, but it seems the aliens are a bit, well alien, and do not think the same way as humans. The gist of this for the novel concerns legal agreements. When a human commits some egregious crime involving aliens, the 'intergalactic tribunal' sorts it out. What this entails is that the aliens get their justice and humanity has little say. The punishments for crimes vary depending upon the aliens, but most seem quite harsh.
The supporting characters are largely people who have 'disappeared'. When the tribunal rules in favor of the aliens, many people use disappearance agencies to, well, disappear with a new identity somewhere in human space. All the aliens have long memories and outstanding warrants may be presented at any time. Miles Flint, along with his tropey partner, start the novel trying to sort out some events around the moon. First, one space yacht turns up on a heading to the moon with three eviscerated bodies on board. Obviously to the cops, this is the result of a vengeance killing by one group of aliens; the bodies are simply a warning to others. At the roughly the same time, the moon's space patrol brings in an alien ship as they have some human children on board and lack the proper warrants. These aliens take their vengeance on the first born children of the guilty humans, and bring them up according to their own rules/culture.
Why are various aliens suddenly showing up in human space with warrants? This is mildly spoilery, but one unscrupulous disappearance agency apparently saw more profit in selling the aliens the info about people they disappeared; indeed, they first take money from people using their services, and then promptly turn the unsuspecting people over to the aliens.
The Disappeared reads like a mystery thriller set in a science fiction environment and is paced accordingly. My issues? The world building, the characters, the aliens, etc. are all underdeveloped; like I noted above, this reads more of a set up for a longer series and perhaps Rusch saved the development of everything for later. Nonetheless, I do feel vested enough to continue with the series, although I may give the next book a go. 3 pulpy stars!!
Set in the relatively new future, Humanity encountered an entire host of aliens who populate the sector of the galaxy. The 'Earth Alliance', the governing body of humanity, which includes Earth of course, and the far flung colonies in the solar system and beyond, made trade agreements with the aliens, but it seems the aliens are a bit, well alien, and do not think the same way as humans. The gist of this for the novel concerns legal agreements. When a human commits some egregious crime involving aliens, the 'intergalactic tribunal' sorts it out. What this entails is that the aliens get their justice and humanity has little say. The punishments for crimes vary depending upon the aliens, but most seem quite harsh.
The supporting characters are largely people who have 'disappeared'. When the tribunal rules in favor of the aliens, many people use disappearance agencies to, well, disappear with a new identity somewhere in human space. All the aliens have long memories and outstanding warrants may be presented at any time. Miles Flint, along with his tropey partner, start the novel trying to sort out some events around the moon. First, one space yacht turns up on a heading to the moon with three eviscerated bodies on board. Obviously to the cops, this is the result of a vengeance killing by one group of aliens; the bodies are simply a warning to others. At the roughly the same time, the moon's space patrol brings in an alien ship as they have some human children on board and lack the proper warrants. These aliens take their vengeance on the first born children of the guilty humans, and bring them up according to their own rules/culture.
Why are various aliens suddenly showing up in human space with warrants? This is mildly spoilery, but one unscrupulous disappearance agency apparently saw more profit in selling the aliens the info about people they disappeared; indeed, they first take money from people using their services, and then promptly turn the unsuspecting people over to the aliens.
The Disappeared reads like a mystery thriller set in a science fiction environment and is paced accordingly. My issues? The world building, the characters, the aliens, etc. are all underdeveloped; like I noted above, this reads more of a set up for a longer series and perhaps Rusch saved the development of everything for later. Nonetheless, I do feel vested enough to continue with the series, although I may give the next book a go. 3 pulpy stars!!
November 20, 2014
Interesting concept, but approached all wrong. I like the idea of a story about fugitives on the run from interstellar law, with the problems of members of one species being convicted under the laws of another, but for some reason the author decided to make the protagonists of this book law-enforcement officers who do everything in their power to not enforce the law, which is incredibly irritating.
Also, the featured fugitives are all really dumb. There're the ones who've been sentenced to have their first-born children taken away, who had no children at the time of sentencing, who decided to abandon their lives and go into hiding rather than just choosing to either not have children, or deliberately having a child to give up. This one is really only a major issue because of the convicted doing incredibly dumb things.
Then there's the lawyer who decided to represent an alien under his planet's own legal system and tried to subvert it, and then acts like it's not her fault when she's found to have committed a crime. Plus, she was only sentenced to five years labour, but instead decides to go into hiding and abandon her entire life. Seems like the wrong choice to me.
Another big problem is the organisations that exist to hide these fugitives. Obviously this is illegal, so you'd assume these businesses would be operating below the radar, but the cops seem to have no trouble locating their offices or getting their financial records, so how they're still operating is a mystery.
But what annoyed me most was the attitudes of the detectives toward people who handed fugitives over to the law or gave away their locations. Apparently these people, law-abiding people helping law-enforcement to locate criminals, are scum. Because no matter what the human has done, you should never hand them over to alien legal systems. Even when they've been charged, convicted, appealed to the interstellar inter-species courts, lost the appeal, been sentenced and fled justice. 'Cause aliens are just automatically evil I guess.
Also, the term "space cop" is used repeatedly and in earnest.
Also, the featured fugitives are all really dumb. There're the ones who've been sentenced to have their first-born children taken away, who had no children at the time of sentencing, who decided to abandon their lives and go into hiding rather than just choosing to either not have children, or deliberately having a child to give up. This one is really only a major issue because of the convicted doing incredibly dumb things.
Then there's the lawyer who decided to represent an alien under his planet's own legal system and tried to subvert it, and then acts like it's not her fault when she's found to have committed a crime. Plus, she was only sentenced to five years labour, but instead decides to go into hiding and abandon her entire life. Seems like the wrong choice to me.
Another big problem is the organisations that exist to hide these fugitives. Obviously this is illegal, so you'd assume these businesses would be operating below the radar, but the cops seem to have no trouble locating their offices or getting their financial records, so how they're still operating is a mystery.
But what annoyed me most was the attitudes of the detectives toward people who handed fugitives over to the law or gave away their locations. Apparently these people, law-abiding people helping law-enforcement to locate criminals, are scum. Because no matter what the human has done, you should never hand them over to alien legal systems. Even when they've been charged, convicted, appealed to the interstellar inter-species courts, lost the appeal, been sentenced and fled justice. 'Cause aliens are just automatically evil I guess.
Also, the term "space cop" is used repeatedly and in earnest.
September 5, 2021
Updated Review - Reread this for Halloween Bingo. The book still holds up. What is interesting is that doing this re-read, I noticed not only the digs at the government but also the anti-capitalism or big business because the people are trapped between alien cultures and the desire of the government on Earth to get the money. Also the hints that manipulation of the system is also interesting.
Does anyone remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the young Mr. Crusher faces a horrible punishment for breaking a fence? The idea behind that episode forms part of the background for this seasons.
The Disappeared is sci-fi C.S.I. with a twist. Inter-galactic treaties have led to a simple rule. You commit a crime on a planet, you face that planet's punishment, even if it means handing over your baby because you stepped on something. It's this premise that makes the book scary and leads the reader to identify with the hero, Miles Flint, a cop who has problems with the inter-galactic law.
The characters are engaging and well fleshed out. It was a very good start to the series.
Does anyone remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the young Mr. Crusher faces a horrible punishment for breaking a fence? The idea behind that episode forms part of the background for this seasons.
The Disappeared is sci-fi C.S.I. with a twist. Inter-galactic treaties have led to a simple rule. You commit a crime on a planet, you face that planet's punishment, even if it means handing over your baby because you stepped on something. It's this premise that makes the book scary and leads the reader to identify with the hero, Miles Flint, a cop who has problems with the inter-galactic law.
The characters are engaging and well fleshed out. It was a very good start to the series.
June 24, 2022
If I rated this book as a police procedural/detective mystery, I'd probably rate it 4.5 stars - police procedural believable and fairly interesting, mystery nicely plotted, very clever, and a little twisty, but not as sophisticated as some. If I rated this book as strictly science fiction, I would probably rate it as 4.5 stars also - terrific detailed world building, no big science blunders, but little hard science. However, The Disappeared is much more than a Sci-Fi Detective Mystery; it is a book that has all the elements for seriously great fiction. When you combine that with top-notch narration from Jay Snyder, you have an audio book that I could hardly stand to it turn off - truly stellar!
* Engaging, believable characters. Men and women who have unique personalities that extend beyond body type or looks; varying levels of intelligence, talents,and flaws; complex emotional and psychological make-ups; diverse backgrounds, ages, and socio-economic levels. It's tough to write good fiction in any genre without good characters and yet it is especially difficult to find good characterizations in science fiction - particularly for female characters.
* Interesting plot - science fiction lends itself to good plots which is one of the reasons I like the genre, but much of it is about colonization and/or battles. I have enjoyed many space exploration type plots, but Rusch's plotting is more about the challenges of life after the initial survival hurdles have been made in space and it was a nice change of pace.
* Setting - The Disappeared takes place primarily in the domed city of Armstrong on the Moon, but Rusch also lines out the politics and the aliens across known colonized space. Her descriptions of Armstrong made me feel like I was there.
* Prose - evocative, but not effusive; truly readable and keeps the story moving.
* Themes - I think all good fiction has to be entertaining, but not all fiction has to give "food for thought". But, if a fictional story makes you think that's a big bonus and there's plenty to ruminate on in The Disappeared. We already know that human societies enact and enforce laws differently. (There are Americans imprisoned in various places around the world for doing things that would not be illegal in the USA.) In Rusch's universe with multiple alien peoples, there is a group that finds death so abhorrent that a person who comes in contact with a dead body is subjected to a cleansing ritual that includes evisceration; a group that takes retribution not on the offender but on his/her loved ones; and a group that subjects even minor offenders to hard labor. You could just avoid contact with those groups to stay out of trouble, but what if they have something really marketable (what if North Korean sat on all the world's diamonds or oil)? The capitalism that lives in most human hearts will find a way to trade for something they want even if there is a great risk in doing so. What if what you believe is moral is illegal - and, you are a cop? What if your style works to make you effective at your job, but keeps getting you into political trouble - can you/should you change?
I listened to two more in The Retrieval Artist series before I could make myself stop to write a review and I am still totally taken with Rusch's writing and her universe. "Retrieverse" keeps expanding in interesting and unusual ways and Flint and DeRicci continue to evolve and grow. As a great topper, Jay Snyder, nice narration/good characterizations, continues as the narrator throughout the series. Most sci-fi enthusiasts will enjoy The Retrieval Artist and most readers who appreciate finely crafted fiction independent of genre should be entertained.
* Engaging, believable characters. Men and women who have unique personalities that extend beyond body type or looks; varying levels of intelligence, talents,and flaws; complex emotional and psychological make-ups; diverse backgrounds, ages, and socio-economic levels. It's tough to write good fiction in any genre without good characters and yet it is especially difficult to find good characterizations in science fiction - particularly for female characters.
* Interesting plot - science fiction lends itself to good plots which is one of the reasons I like the genre, but much of it is about colonization and/or battles. I have enjoyed many space exploration type plots, but Rusch's plotting is more about the challenges of life after the initial survival hurdles have been made in space and it was a nice change of pace.
* Setting - The Disappeared takes place primarily in the domed city of Armstrong on the Moon, but Rusch also lines out the politics and the aliens across known colonized space. Her descriptions of Armstrong made me feel like I was there.
* Prose - evocative, but not effusive; truly readable and keeps the story moving.
* Themes - I think all good fiction has to be entertaining, but not all fiction has to give "food for thought". But, if a fictional story makes you think that's a big bonus and there's plenty to ruminate on in The Disappeared. We already know that human societies enact and enforce laws differently. (There are Americans imprisoned in various places around the world for doing things that would not be illegal in the USA.) In Rusch's universe with multiple alien peoples, there is a group that finds death so abhorrent that a person who comes in contact with a dead body is subjected to a cleansing ritual that includes evisceration; a group that takes retribution not on the offender but on his/her loved ones; and a group that subjects even minor offenders to hard labor. You could just avoid contact with those groups to stay out of trouble, but what if they have something really marketable (what if North Korean sat on all the world's diamonds or oil)? The capitalism that lives in most human hearts will find a way to trade for something they want even if there is a great risk in doing so. What if what you believe is moral is illegal - and, you are a cop? What if your style works to make you effective at your job, but keeps getting you into political trouble - can you/should you change?
I listened to two more in The Retrieval Artist series before I could make myself stop to write a review and I am still totally taken with Rusch's writing and her universe. "Retrieverse" keeps expanding in interesting and unusual ways and Flint and DeRicci continue to evolve and grow. As a great topper, Jay Snyder, nice narration/good characterizations, continues as the narrator throughout the series. Most sci-fi enthusiasts will enjoy The Retrieval Artist and most readers who appreciate finely crafted fiction independent of genre should be entertained.
September 4, 2020
Notes:
Jay Snyder did a great job narrating the story.
Good start to a series. It was a bit clunky in plot progression & I totally forgot about the series title for 80% of the book. Curious to see where Miles Flint will go from here.
Also amused that I just read a story about a character named Flint and here's yet another one.
Jay Snyder did a great job narrating the story.
Good start to a series. It was a bit clunky in plot progression & I totally forgot about the series title for 80% of the book. Curious to see where Miles Flint will go from here.
Also amused that I just read a story about a character named Flint and here's yet another one.
June 27, 2016
I enjoyed this book. I really did. It was a very intriguing world and a very intriguing story. It is *not quite* dystopian, more true sci-fi - I mean there ARE aliens. The characters are very well drawn.
I am, however, unlikely to continue the series. It just hits too close to home for me. The government - that is supposed to be protecting its citizens -is way too busy protecting its own behind to care about its citizens. Yep. This is why I won't continue.
If that doesn't bother you and you would like a good sci fi series, I highly recommend this one. I wish I could continue. It depresses me too much.
I am, however, unlikely to continue the series. It just hits too close to home for me. The government - that is supposed to be protecting its citizens -is way too busy protecting its own behind to care about its citizens. Yep. This is why I won't continue.
If that doesn't bother you and you would like a good sci fi series, I highly recommend this one. I wish I could continue. It depresses me too much.
June 11, 2015
The story of how Miles Flint becomes a 'Retrieval Artist.' I'd say more but I think half the fun of this book is the slow reveal of the world, governed by an intercultural law that allows aliens to enact punishments on humans for transgressions of their laws. Loved the world-building, the characters, and the many shades of grey (and I don't just mean the Moon dust) in the plot.
May 29, 2015
Having just read The Retrieval Artist, the novella that began this series, and having previously read two of Rusch’s standalone Retrieval Artist novels, I’ve decided to start going through this series in order of publication.
The Disappeared steps back in time and follows the events that led Miles Flint into becoming a Retrieval Artist: a private investigator dedicated to finding those who have “disappeared,” humans (usually) who have changed their identities and gone into hiding because of convictions for crimes against alien races. That is to say, it follows Flint’s short lived police detective career, and examines the legal and cultural differences between human society and several alien species. And more specifically, it deals with the moral, ethical, and personal dilemmas caused by interspecies trade/legal agreements.
So needless to say, the story revolves around moral conflict. It’s tragic and emotionally charged. And yet it’s actually written in very simple, straightforward terms. It feels a lot more like a primer to the universe that's explored in later books than it does a work that satisfies on its own terms. It’s a decent, quick, and easy read...But it was not wholly satisfying either. Rusch’s later works in this series (or at least the ones I’ve read) were more complex and more interesting. Probably because they were proper mysteries. In The Disappeared there really isn’t any mystery...Other than how the main character will work his way through the moral/ethical ambiguities of his predicament: his job is to uphold laws which he finds abhorrent and unjust.
Rusch brings The Disappeared to a satisfying conclusion, but for me the book didn’t seem to have as much depth and complexity as it needed. It seemed like a long novella rather than a full-fledged novel.
Worth a read? Sure. But probably not her best effort in this series.
The Disappeared steps back in time and follows the events that led Miles Flint into becoming a Retrieval Artist: a private investigator dedicated to finding those who have “disappeared,” humans (usually) who have changed their identities and gone into hiding because of convictions for crimes against alien races. That is to say, it follows Flint’s short lived police detective career, and examines the legal and cultural differences between human society and several alien species. And more specifically, it deals with the moral, ethical, and personal dilemmas caused by interspecies trade/legal agreements.
So needless to say, the story revolves around moral conflict. It’s tragic and emotionally charged. And yet it’s actually written in very simple, straightforward terms. It feels a lot more like a primer to the universe that's explored in later books than it does a work that satisfies on its own terms. It’s a decent, quick, and easy read...But it was not wholly satisfying either. Rusch’s later works in this series (or at least the ones I’ve read) were more complex and more interesting. Probably because they were proper mysteries. In The Disappeared there really isn’t any mystery...Other than how the main character will work his way through the moral/ethical ambiguities of his predicament: his job is to uphold laws which he finds abhorrent and unjust.
Rusch brings The Disappeared to a satisfying conclusion, but for me the book didn’t seem to have as much depth and complexity as it needed. It seemed like a long novella rather than a full-fledged novel.
Worth a read? Sure. But probably not her best effort in this series.
January 26, 2014
Interesting idea but the execution was not so great.
The basic premise is quite interesting. In the future, humanity has reached the stars and discovered other intelligent races. Part of the price of doing business with these other races is that humans must abide and be accountable under the laws of the race who controlled where the crime occurred. So, CEO of an interstellar corporation commits sacrilege on an alien world? The penalty is death of their first-born, under the laws of the owners of that planet. This gives rise to a niche industry where perpetrators of these crimes can be "disappeared"; basically companies will, for a fee, provide a client with the background, new name, papers, etc. for a different life, so alien justice cannot be carried out. So, this is, roughly, the premise.
The story centers on two Lunar (actually Armstrong City, a dome on the moon) detectives who are faced with multiple crimes surrounding aliens and the Disappeared. While I found the idea behind the story interesting, I really had difficulty following why anybody did anything in this book. The motivations of the Disappeared people were pretty evident (I don't want to die/perform multiple years hard labor/have my first born taken away) but I never really felt I understood the motivations behind them getting in trouble in the first place. The detectives were worse for me. I never got why they did what they did. All the characters felt two-dimensional and any "depth" felt disjointed and ancillary to the way they acted. The only beings in the book I felt I had a handle on their motivations and actions were the aliens.
tl;dr: This just did not work for me. The legal aspects were really good ideas but the characterizations felt really forced.
The basic premise is quite interesting. In the future, humanity has reached the stars and discovered other intelligent races. Part of the price of doing business with these other races is that humans must abide and be accountable under the laws of the race who controlled where the crime occurred. So, CEO of an interstellar corporation commits sacrilege on an alien world? The penalty is death of their first-born, under the laws of the owners of that planet. This gives rise to a niche industry where perpetrators of these crimes can be "disappeared"; basically companies will, for a fee, provide a client with the background, new name, papers, etc. for a different life, so alien justice cannot be carried out. So, this is, roughly, the premise.
The story centers on two Lunar (actually Armstrong City, a dome on the moon) detectives who are faced with multiple crimes surrounding aliens and the Disappeared. While I found the idea behind the story interesting, I really had difficulty following why anybody did anything in this book. The motivations of the Disappeared people were pretty evident (I don't want to die/perform multiple years hard labor/have my first born taken away) but I never really felt I understood the motivations behind them getting in trouble in the first place. The detectives were worse for me. I never got why they did what they did. All the characters felt two-dimensional and any "depth" felt disjointed and ancillary to the way they acted. The only beings in the book I felt I had a handle on their motivations and actions were the aliens.
tl;dr: This just did not work for me. The legal aspects were really good ideas but the characterizations felt really forced.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 22, 2016
Soooo... I totally feel bad about not loving this book. It looked so promising. My issues were the multiple POV and the multiple storylines. It drove me crazy and it jarred the book enough that I just couldn't get into it. The aliens were really cool, along with their totally bizarre laws. I mean, we'll take your first born child away from you because you built on land that we sold you? How screwed up is that? The aliens that were brought into the story were very unique and I can see where there's room for a vast number of books simply by inventing new aliens. It just didn't work for me. Also, the term Retrieval Artist was apparently occasionally inverted, which was also quite confusing. Disappointing.
November 17, 2020
This is my favorite Sci fi series. This is probably my 3rd time through it and I love it. I will say that I don't recommend her 8 book tangent (known as the anniversary day saga) but the first 7 retrieval artist books are I good.
August 7, 2020
Yet another mediocre not-too-bad-to-really-dislike-but-not-interrsting-enough-to-be-really-good ratings of which I have nothing much to say. I seem to be surfing on a wave of those.
October 8, 2017
A fast paced space mystery that lays the groundwork for a series.
Flint has just made detective on the moon, a long-time dream. But if this week is an example of the kind of cases he is going to get, he already regrets the goal. 3 cases seem to overlap in that they involve turning humans over to alien races for punishment. Enforcing laws that do not seem moral makes Flint dig deep, hoping for a loophole. Instead he finds all sorts of graft. People who have paid good money to 'disappear' from their alien warrants are suddenly being found, and Flint really wants to keep that from happening.
This had a few glitches, but has an interesting premise and shows a tremendous amount of potential. I look forward to reading the next in the series.
Flint has just made detective on the moon, a long-time dream. But if this week is an example of the kind of cases he is going to get, he already regrets the goal. 3 cases seem to overlap in that they involve turning humans over to alien races for punishment. Enforcing laws that do not seem moral makes Flint dig deep, hoping for a loophole. Instead he finds all sorts of graft. People who have paid good money to 'disappear' from their alien warrants are suddenly being found, and Flint really wants to keep that from happening.
This had a few glitches, but has an interesting premise and shows a tremendous amount of potential. I look forward to reading the next in the series.
February 22, 2023
3.5 stars. This was not the book I thought I was reading...I probably would have liked it more had it been, so my mistake! I thought I was reading a book about science fiction antiquities hunters (Jack McDevitt is the author of those). This one is a science fiction mystery with interesting thoughts about alien laws and how humans should abide (or not) by them. I have read this book before, but it was quite awhile ago. Pretty good read for a trip.
October 16, 2020
Una fusión de novela negra y ciencia ficción. Un despliegue de imaginación durante la investigación de tres crímenes. No dudo que volveré a visitar el universo creado por KKR. Recomendado.
August 12, 2023
This series has an intriguing premise and well drawn characters. I look forward to continuing it, I would recommend it to others who enjoy both mystery and science-fiction novels.
February 27, 2016
It started off very entertaining with just the right amount of mystery. I liked the police procedural aspect with the two cops. The alternating POVs kept it speeding along. It did seem kind of weird that all of the aliens had the same or very similar laws about how people had to pay for what for their crimes. Except the Wygnin made the criminals' children pay by kidnapping them and trying to turn them Wygnin. Which worked if they were young enough and they could be happy members of Wygnin society, as horrifying as it was to the humans, but if they were older it destroyed their personalities and was crippling. That's hard to even read about. But that's the price of doing interstellar business!
The alternating POVs kept the pace moving along very quickly and all of the viewpoints were interesting and kept my curiosity piqued. I wasn't sure if all of the characters were likable or not, but that isn't always a requirement, and trying to find out was part of the curiosity aspect of watching it unfold. It was good to see that a book that was published fourteen years ago (I read this in February 2016) didn't feel outdated. The author didn't try to include many technological wonders that would date it, it was mostly classic sci-fi Moon colony and inner planet settlement motifs, with her aliens providing the primary originality and fulcrum around which the various POV stories rotated. I really enjoyed the police procedural aspect of it too, but I always like a sci-fi mystery, it's an interesting way to illustrate a society. Well, I like a mystery anyway, but prefer fantasy and sci-fi, so combining mystery with one of my favorite genres is usually a big win-win for me. But I thought the author was good at spooling out the details, of each of the Disappeared's cases about how they got in trouble with the respective aliens, about the police investigating the cases as they discovered them on the Moon, about the police partners and who they were and what their personal histories were. There were an awful lot of details once I thought about it, but it didn't feel that way at all, it felt like one of those easy, effortless mysteries that just seemed logical in the way it built and unfolded. The kind that must actually be really hard to plan and write. Especially when it's the first book in a series so it's also laying the groundwork for what the author wants to do longer term as well. Most of the way along in the book I thought it didn't suffer for being a first book, it didn't do the awkward introduction thing or anything, there were no infodumps.
But the Retrieval Artist wasn't even mentioned until around page three hundred and barely even then, so don't expect the book to be about that. And by around then I realized that it was very much the first book in a series, that pretty much everything that happened up to page three hundred was actually just an introduction to the series. The pace is weird once I saw the whole thing, it went along fine until that point, then it was a mad dash to the end. I had a hard time believing Miles' actions at that point, within two hours he made major decisions and acted on them, no pause or hesitation, completely inconsistently with the serious and dedicated cop character who'd been established in the rest of the book. The guy who we see at the end of the book doesn't seem like he could be the same guy at the beginning of the book, after just a few short days. The character wasn't introduced in a way that worked for me in the beginning to get to that end, or the middle didn't move him from that beginning to that end, or something just didn't work for me with his character to make it believable. But it isn't actually that big of a deal, despite the rushed ending and some other issues with things that were shallower that they should have been. It's still a very fun book and a good beginning of a series and I'm very intrigued to see where Rusch took the series next.
The alternating POVs kept the pace moving along very quickly and all of the viewpoints were interesting and kept my curiosity piqued. I wasn't sure if all of the characters were likable or not, but that isn't always a requirement, and trying to find out was part of the curiosity aspect of watching it unfold. It was good to see that a book that was published fourteen years ago (I read this in February 2016) didn't feel outdated. The author didn't try to include many technological wonders that would date it, it was mostly classic sci-fi Moon colony and inner planet settlement motifs, with her aliens providing the primary originality and fulcrum around which the various POV stories rotated. I really enjoyed the police procedural aspect of it too, but I always like a sci-fi mystery, it's an interesting way to illustrate a society. Well, I like a mystery anyway, but prefer fantasy and sci-fi, so combining mystery with one of my favorite genres is usually a big win-win for me. But I thought the author was good at spooling out the details, of each of the Disappeared's cases about how they got in trouble with the respective aliens, about the police investigating the cases as they discovered them on the Moon, about the police partners and who they were and what their personal histories were. There were an awful lot of details once I thought about it, but it didn't feel that way at all, it felt like one of those easy, effortless mysteries that just seemed logical in the way it built and unfolded. The kind that must actually be really hard to plan and write. Especially when it's the first book in a series so it's also laying the groundwork for what the author wants to do longer term as well. Most of the way along in the book I thought it didn't suffer for being a first book, it didn't do the awkward introduction thing or anything, there were no infodumps.
But the Retrieval Artist wasn't even mentioned until around page three hundred and barely even then, so don't expect the book to be about that. And by around then I realized that it was very much the first book in a series, that pretty much everything that happened up to page three hundred was actually just an introduction to the series. The pace is weird once I saw the whole thing, it went along fine until that point, then it was a mad dash to the end. I had a hard time believing Miles' actions at that point, within two hours he made major decisions and acted on them, no pause or hesitation, completely inconsistently with the serious and dedicated cop character who'd been established in the rest of the book. The guy who we see at the end of the book doesn't seem like he could be the same guy at the beginning of the book, after just a few short days. The character wasn't introduced in a way that worked for me in the beginning to get to that end, or the middle didn't move him from that beginning to that end, or something just didn't work for me with his character to make it believable. But it isn't actually that big of a deal, despite the rushed ending and some other issues with things that were shallower that they should have been. It's still a very fun book and a good beginning of a series and I'm very intrigued to see where Rusch took the series next.
March 20, 2013
This is the prequel to Rusch's 2000 story, "The Retrieval Artist." As that was and is one of my favorite novellas of all time, I was eagerly anticipating this book, and not disappointed in the least.
Miles Flint is a first-year detective on the Moon Sector Police, with his tough experienced partner, Noelle DeRicci. Both are smart and somewhat on the fringe of the agency, and thus tend to pick up the cases others don't really want. As the book opens they are given a case in the Port, a mysterious vessel with three victims of a gruesome Disty vengeance killing inside. Almost immediately, more aliens and a beautiful woman on the run arrive to complicate matters.
Because in this future, humanity has made trading contracts with other species that allow them to use their own justice on humans who violate their laws. Once an appeal has been denied by the multicultural courts, the aggrieved party is allowed to take matters into their own hands however their laws see fit. Those humans can be pressed into slavery, messily executed along with everyone involved, have their children taken, or any other punishment, with impunity. Though few like it, for the most part the politicians and corporations have convinced people that it's necessary for progress. Meanwhile, quasi-legal Disappearance services have sprung up to shield and give new lives to people who are willing to pay.
As the cops try to prevent a diplomatic disaster, it slowly becomes obvious that all of this is related to a disappearance service selling out its clients, though the reader knew early on. Both work hard to keep such a stressful situation from spiraling out of control, even when they could step back; Flint proves his humanity in the end, and tries to help as many as he can. He doesn't entirely succeed, and not as well as he'd like, but it's more than anyone hoped for.
I can't say enough for this story. All of the characters are very real, the stress and worry etched into every page, hope rare but held onto tightly. Everyone has their own dark pasts, everyone their own mistakes that haunt them though they push it down. Seeing people with many different interests competing or working together or both. The story unfolds masterfully, weaving in and out of cultural and interpersonal relations, rules and regulations, philosophical conundrums, histories, desperate attempts to keep order, and it's always apparent that everyone wants to do the right thing, though only Flint is so willing to fight hard for what he believes in, then DeRicci, inspired by him and past caring about her future.
The reader is given a lot extra that the cops don't have, and in many ways this brings us to sympathize with the guilty and less likable protagonists. Even the woman in the first chapter, horrified to find her vessel abandoned to the Disty, and next seen brutally eviscerated... when later we find out it was all for teaching a Disty English. The prose is kept tight, clipping forward from the first page, taking only the short breathers that the heroes and the fugitives get. It's an effort just to set it down, no matter where you are. Even the exposition is fluidly intermixed with the story, so nothing feels rushed. The technology is neither overexplained nor silly, more of a setting for the characters than anything.
I recommend this to all. I cannot wait for the next installment, be it in short form or novel.
Miles Flint is a first-year detective on the Moon Sector Police, with his tough experienced partner, Noelle DeRicci. Both are smart and somewhat on the fringe of the agency, and thus tend to pick up the cases others don't really want. As the book opens they are given a case in the Port, a mysterious vessel with three victims of a gruesome Disty vengeance killing inside. Almost immediately, more aliens and a beautiful woman on the run arrive to complicate matters.
Because in this future, humanity has made trading contracts with other species that allow them to use their own justice on humans who violate their laws. Once an appeal has been denied by the multicultural courts, the aggrieved party is allowed to take matters into their own hands however their laws see fit. Those humans can be pressed into slavery, messily executed along with everyone involved, have their children taken, or any other punishment, with impunity. Though few like it, for the most part the politicians and corporations have convinced people that it's necessary for progress. Meanwhile, quasi-legal Disappearance services have sprung up to shield and give new lives to people who are willing to pay.
As the cops try to prevent a diplomatic disaster, it slowly becomes obvious that all of this is related to a disappearance service selling out its clients, though the reader knew early on. Both work hard to keep such a stressful situation from spiraling out of control, even when they could step back; Flint proves his humanity in the end, and tries to help as many as he can. He doesn't entirely succeed, and not as well as he'd like, but it's more than anyone hoped for.
I can't say enough for this story. All of the characters are very real, the stress and worry etched into every page, hope rare but held onto tightly. Everyone has their own dark pasts, everyone their own mistakes that haunt them though they push it down. Seeing people with many different interests competing or working together or both. The story unfolds masterfully, weaving in and out of cultural and interpersonal relations, rules and regulations, philosophical conundrums, histories, desperate attempts to keep order, and it's always apparent that everyone wants to do the right thing, though only Flint is so willing to fight hard for what he believes in, then DeRicci, inspired by him and past caring about her future.
The reader is given a lot extra that the cops don't have, and in many ways this brings us to sympathize with the guilty and less likable protagonists. Even the woman in the first chapter, horrified to find her vessel abandoned to the Disty, and next seen brutally eviscerated... when later we find out it was all for teaching a Disty English. The prose is kept tight, clipping forward from the first page, taking only the short breathers that the heroes and the fugitives get. It's an effort just to set it down, no matter where you are. Even the exposition is fluidly intermixed with the story, so nothing feels rushed. The technology is neither overexplained nor silly, more of a setting for the characters than anything.
I recommend this to all. I cannot wait for the next installment, be it in short form or novel.
February 5, 2017
I've been on a serious science fiction binge of late because... reality, but I've been determined not to fall into a genre rut. The Disappeared is the first in The Retrieval Artist series has just made that determination waver. This story was addictive and I mean in that way that not only is it a page turner but also I felt a bit resentful when I had to put it down and do other things. I literally woke up with my tablet in my hand because my body finally got its way in the middle of the night and sleep overtook me. I want to read the entire series straight through.
This is the story of how Miles Flint, a detective, becomes a retrieval artist. In the future, humanity has colonized the Moon and Mars and has interstellar agreements with three alien species (Disty, Wignan & Rev). Flint and his partner Noellle DeRicci have cases land in their laps of humans who've run afoul of the aliens laws and are due to be handed over. The problem is that all the offenders are literally the titular Disappeared. They've paid a service to give them new identities as a way to abscond from their sentences. It's a complex legal landscape here where sentence can be levied on the child of an offender, a lawyer who defended a repeat offender is now liable criminally for his crimes & the penalty for teaching one of a particular alien race human language costs the teacher their tongue. The police on the Moon in Armstrong Dome are tasked with following the law as proscribed and handing people over and this proves to be the problem for our detectives here. Basically, the perspective of humans is primary here so all the penalties are seen as excessive & inhumane.
I was invested in the outcome of each situation and I felt the world-building was well done. I do have to say that the offender who was guilty of clearing what she thought were trees to expand her residence of an alien planet only to find that she'd wiped out several sentient beings and thousands of other beings that nested in them was fairly unsympathetic. I just didn't want her child to suffer for her deeds. The writing here just seemed like the lives lost didn't need to be paid for because she was a human being. Not a good look. Still, I liked the resolution.
I only want more of this universe even though its a bit of a grim future. Honestly, unless the aliens are trading the cure to all mankind's physical maladies and also the answer to universal peace and total prosperity, I can't believe whatever is being traded is worth the cost. I look forward to finding out more about the politics & trade situation. Definitely recommended as it was as good a police procedural as it was a science fiction story. Definitely hit a lot of my The Expanse feels.
This is the story of how Miles Flint, a detective, becomes a retrieval artist. In the future, humanity has colonized the Moon and Mars and has interstellar agreements with three alien species (Disty, Wignan & Rev). Flint and his partner Noellle DeRicci have cases land in their laps of humans who've run afoul of the aliens laws and are due to be handed over. The problem is that all the offenders are literally the titular Disappeared. They've paid a service to give them new identities as a way to abscond from their sentences. It's a complex legal landscape here where sentence can be levied on the child of an offender, a lawyer who defended a repeat offender is now liable criminally for his crimes & the penalty for teaching one of a particular alien race human language costs the teacher their tongue. The police on the Moon in Armstrong Dome are tasked with following the law as proscribed and handing people over and this proves to be the problem for our detectives here. Basically, the perspective of humans is primary here so all the penalties are seen as excessive & inhumane.
I was invested in the outcome of each situation and I felt the world-building was well done. I do have to say that the offender who was guilty of clearing what she thought were trees to expand her residence of an alien planet only to find that she'd wiped out several sentient beings and thousands of other beings that nested in them was fairly unsympathetic. I just didn't want her child to suffer for her deeds. The writing here just seemed like the lives lost didn't need to be paid for because she was a human being. Not a good look. Still, I liked the resolution.
I only want more of this universe even though its a bit of a grim future. Honestly, unless the aliens are trading the cure to all mankind's physical maladies and also the answer to universal peace and total prosperity, I can't believe whatever is being traded is worth the cost. I look forward to finding out more about the politics & trade situation. Definitely recommended as it was as good a police procedural as it was a science fiction story. Definitely hit a lot of my The Expanse feels.
July 16, 2019
A detective story is not very entertaining when there is no mystery. That is the number one rule to learn from this, I think.
Second thing to learn is that I don’t care about a character’s emotions just because you tell me to. Show, don’t tell.
A major plot point in this story is aliens coming to take away human children as payment for the crimes of the parents. We are told over and over how horrible it is for the parents to lose their children, and how awful it will be for the poor kids to live with the aliens, but never shown. We never see anyone actually lose a child, we never see where these children might go or what they might experience. All we get are things like ‘it would be a day seared into his memory forever’ and ‘the pain, and sadness were very bad and he was sad and also mad’ to paraphrase in a snarky way.
So there was no mystery, and no surprises really either, no big reveals, no twists, no character development either that I could tell. The character I liked most was not the main character, and I’m not sure but she was maybe supposed to be a villain?
Also, the idea that anyone who disappears to escape a crime is automatically a good guy who doesn't deserve whatever sentence they were given is bizarrely xenophobic for a sci fi novel. Am I just supposed to take for granted that all alien laws are stupid and shouldn't be obeyed, and all humans are good and being unjustly punished? Absurd. If Flint goes through with helping everyone on the disappeared list, he is going to be helping plenty of violent murderers and thieves, just because they are humans being prosecuted by aliens.
Anyway, not recommended. Sad, cause I thought I’d found a sci fi detective series to read!
Second thing to learn is that I don’t care about a character’s emotions just because you tell me to. Show, don’t tell.
A major plot point in this story is aliens coming to take away human children as payment for the crimes of the parents. We are told over and over how horrible it is for the parents to lose their children, and how awful it will be for the poor kids to live with the aliens, but never shown. We never see anyone actually lose a child, we never see where these children might go or what they might experience. All we get are things like ‘it would be a day seared into his memory forever’ and ‘the pain, and sadness were very bad and he was sad and also mad’ to paraphrase in a snarky way.
So there was no mystery, and no surprises really either, no big reveals, no twists, no character development either that I could tell. The character I liked most was not the main character, and I’m not sure but she was maybe supposed to be a villain?
Also, the idea that anyone who disappears to escape a crime is automatically a good guy who doesn't deserve whatever sentence they were given is bizarrely xenophobic for a sci fi novel. Am I just supposed to take for granted that all alien laws are stupid and shouldn't be obeyed, and all humans are good and being unjustly punished? Absurd. If Flint goes through with helping everyone on the disappeared list, he is going to be helping plenty of violent murderers and thieves, just because they are humans being prosecuted by aliens.
Anyway, not recommended. Sad, cause I thought I’d found a sci fi detective series to read!
May 5, 2012
I do not want to live in the world Rusch has created in this series. It is too hard for me to read about aliens taking human babies/children as compensation/punishment/justice and humans allowing this to happen. Enough with the babies already! My heart just can't take it. In fact, I had to skip to the end to make sure I found out what happened before I would willingly continue reading.
Good story and descriptions but I think I will pass on the rest of the series.
Good story and descriptions but I think I will pass on the rest of the series.
July 20, 2015
DNF at 75% - The only interesting aspect of this book is the ways different alien cultures deal with justice. And it's barely touched upon. For a book with several people struggling against alien justice, it's pretty boring and not particularly well-written.
September 8, 2016
3.5 stars.
January 7, 2024
Okay, so if you'd checked in with me about halfway through, or even a hundred pages from the end, I would've been prepping to give this book at least 4 stars, maybe 5, and adding the rest of the extensive series to my TBR. Sci-fi mystery is one of my very favorite mashups and this one was moving fast, with mystery, adventure, hints of tragic backstory and cool alien races, all taking place on a moon colony. We were knee-deep in ethical dilemmas as our heroes, Cops Just Trying to Do Their Jobs in a World Complicated by Bureaucrats (which I will normally give some leeway in speculative fiction that I won't in real-world fiction), tried to navigate the complicated situations arising from the people they were running into who were all trying to evade alien justice. We got some smatterings of cool alien cultures (did the Rev legal system seem...just very reasonable to anyone else?) and history along the way. It's not really that far off the plot of a Star Trek episode.
HOWEVER.
Rant incoming.
If you don't want to read the spoilers, just know that I would have enjoyed this book in a vacuum where I had no idea about human history and real-world events.
*Ahem*
Yes, I picked White Guy Blinking for a reason here.
Bottom line: could have been interesting and complex, went with the humans=good, aliens=bad easy way out.
HOWEVER.
Rant incoming.
If you don't want to read the spoilers, just know that I would have enjoyed this book in a vacuum where I had no idea about human history and real-world events.
*Ahem*
Yes, I picked White Guy Blinking for a reason here.
Bottom line: could have been interesting and complex, went with the humans=good, aliens=bad easy way out.
September 4, 2019
Page turning science fiction
The Disappeared explores the nuances of conflict between human and alien cultures. Three desperate humans have employed a disappearance service because separately they have unwittingly violated alien taboos. Many before them have done the same, but now all in hiding are in jeopardy as the files of Disappearance Inc are being sold to bounty hunters eager to bring these humans to what they consider justice and receive large amounts of money as a reward.
Flint is a detective on the moon who suddenly has to deal with three separate alien cultures demanding the return of escaped humans they claim are criminals in the eyes of their laws: a child who will pay for his mother's transgression on unknown sacred ground, a female lawyer who now faces hard labor in an alien penal colony for winning her alien client's defense, and a human infant at risk to be turned into an alien creature because his father didn't understand their building codes.
And these three cases are only the beginning as the new owners of Disappeared, Inc. begin to sell off the list of fugitive humans.
An intriguing story that talks about justice, moral right, and the differences in human and other alien's law from several perspectives.
I look forward to reading more in the series.
The Disappeared explores the nuances of conflict between human and alien cultures. Three desperate humans have employed a disappearance service because separately they have unwittingly violated alien taboos. Many before them have done the same, but now all in hiding are in jeopardy as the files of Disappearance Inc are being sold to bounty hunters eager to bring these humans to what they consider justice and receive large amounts of money as a reward.
Flint is a detective on the moon who suddenly has to deal with three separate alien cultures demanding the return of escaped humans they claim are criminals in the eyes of their laws: a child who will pay for his mother's transgression on unknown sacred ground, a female lawyer who now faces hard labor in an alien penal colony for winning her alien client's defense, and a human infant at risk to be turned into an alien creature because his father didn't understand their building codes.
And these three cases are only the beginning as the new owners of Disappeared, Inc. begin to sell off the list of fugitive humans.
An intriguing story that talks about justice, moral right, and the differences in human and other alien's law from several perspectives.
I look forward to reading more in the series.
July 15, 2024
Detectives Flint and DeRicci are working on two difficult cases that involve irascible aliens. One group of aliens claim they have legal rights to two human children. The other group is trying to apprehend a woman who broke their laws, but she can’t be found. Neither humans, nor aliens trust one another, and all are determined to have their way, which could mean a deadly outcome.
In addition to crime solving, the plot focuses on politics, bureaucracy, and the question of justice. Characters are betrayed and swept up in circumstances beyond their control. The author’s created an intriguing world, where life on the moon and Mars has been developed, to varying degrees, for some time. Misdeeds, even for the right reasons, can result in long-term imprisonment by aliens whose idea of justice don’t mesh with humans.
There is tension on every page, but less action than one would think when the stakes are so high. The characters are well drawn, which makes the intricate plot work so well. This is the first in the retrieval artist series, which science fiction fans will likely enjoy.
In addition to crime solving, the plot focuses on politics, bureaucracy, and the question of justice. Characters are betrayed and swept up in circumstances beyond their control. The author’s created an intriguing world, where life on the moon and Mars has been developed, to varying degrees, for some time. Misdeeds, even for the right reasons, can result in long-term imprisonment by aliens whose idea of justice don’t mesh with humans.
There is tension on every page, but less action than one would think when the stakes are so high. The characters are well drawn, which makes the intricate plot work so well. This is the first in the retrieval artist series, which science fiction fans will likely enjoy.
September 3, 2017
Hard science fiction meets hard-boiled crime drama.
August 19, 2024
Pretty good world building. Everyone, including the aliens, were relatable. No cartoon villainy, but some definite evil on the part of Disappearance Inc.. All in all, a pretty interesting read, maybe just a little slower paced than I prefer.
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