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The LaNague Federation #4
Dydeetown World
After most of Earth's inhabitants have left to travel in space, life on the ground becomes very strange indeed as genetically engineered tyrannosauruses roam, children born without a license are stalked, and one lone private eye is in charge
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1989
52 people are currently reading
259 people want to read
About the author
F. Paul Wilson
421 books1,989 followersFrancis Paul Wilson is an author, born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He writes novels and short stories primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was Healer (1976). Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to Analog and continued to write science fiction throughout the seventies. In 1981 he ventured into the horror genre with the international bestseller, The Keep, and helped define the field throughout the rest of the decade. In the 1990s he became a true genre hopper, moving from science fiction to horror to medical thrillers and branching into interactive scripting for Disney Interactive and other multimedia companies. He, along with Matthew J. Costello, created and scripted FTL Newsfeed which ran daily on the Sci-Fi Channel from 1992-1996.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulw...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulw...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 27, 2024
Dydeetown World
By F. Paul Wilson
It's definitely a hard book to describe. There's the feel of an old-time detective (1940's?) but also that of a futuristic lady (a clone that is thought of as lesser than normal humans) who comes to ask the detective for help.
There are clones in other aspects of life, too. How about a small t-rex instead of a dog? Children who are clones live on the street or "urchins." No rights, not cared for.
It's an interesting world and story. I think I have read this 30 or more years ago, but I don't remember it all.
By F. Paul Wilson
It's definitely a hard book to describe. There's the feel of an old-time detective (1940's?) but also that of a futuristic lady (a clone that is thought of as lesser than normal humans) who comes to ask the detective for help.
There are clones in other aspects of life, too. How about a small t-rex instead of a dog? Children who are clones live on the street or "urchins." No rights, not cared for.
It's an interesting world and story. I think I have read this 30 or more years ago, but I don't remember it all.
October 5, 2008
4.0 to 4.5 stars. This is the first F. Paul Wilson book that I have read and I plan to read many more based on how much I enjoyed this story. Great characters, excellent world-building and cool meshing of the noir style private eye framework with "out there" SF as the subject matter. A great book. Highly recommended.
September 14, 2019
I read this book about 30 years ago and remember liking it a LOT. Some of the scenes from it have been etched in my memory since that reading. I reread it this week and was absolutely floored. This book should be made into a screenplay and filmed NOW. This story HUGELY resonates with what is going on now politically. The children in cages thing. If filmed I could easily see this getting an oscar for best picture. Some of the nagging questions of our time are depicted with precision here. The issue of whether or not getting involved in correcting a great social evil. The theme of us vs them and whether that tribalism misses the point that there is really only us the boogie man evil them is just a arbitrary fabrication that bears no resemblance to the real truth. This is probably in my top 5 list of all time not just for the social issues echoes here but also because it is a damned good cyber punk story it actually goes a lot further with some of the themes explored in Blade Runner (the movie) and does a far better job of it. Mr. Wilson should have written a sequel to this book with the main detective character. I think the basic noir detective/cyberpunk thing has lot more legs to it than unfortunately the author gave it.
January 26, 2024
Science fiction/noir detective. Loved it.
October 25, 2019
I got this book as part of a lot of free books that were offered during the summer of 2019. Being as it is by F. Paul Wilson, I expected either a medical thriller or a paranormal-kinda thing a la Repairman Jack. I ended up getting both. Sort of. And, maybe, neither. What I absolutely DID get was the best book I've read yet in 2019.
I haven't handed out many 5 star reviews this year. Plenty of 4s, a few threes, a one (which really deserved less, but you can't do that.) Not many 5s. Just as an example, "American Gods" got a five, so that's the kind of quality we're talking here.
"Dydeetown World" is a book in the LaNague Federation series by Wilson, and the first I've dug into. It won't be the last. I am presupposing based on what I read here that this is an alternate history based on some post-apocalyptic version of the Earth. That's probably a very broad drawing, but never mind. I'll learn more as I go along. In this story our hero is one Sigmundo Dreyer, a private investigator of sorts, who is first approached to look for a missing person. The client is the presumed fiancé, a woman who also happens to be a clone. Of Jean Harlow. Really. There's a whole subplot of Sig's disdain for clones and what happens when he finds the missing person. But this is only the first of a series of vignettes that come to pass in the pages of this book, all of them eventually resolved in the last segment...and dammit, it all works, and it's even (no, seriously, wait for it)
Heart warming.
Now, this is NOT something I am accustomed to saying about a Wilson story. But when I finished Dydeetown, I had a smile on my face. And I read the last 50 or 60 pages straight through, rather late at night. I HAD to see how it was all going to resolve, and I slept very well afterward. At my age, that's kinda rare, so thanks, Dr. Paul. I appreciate it. Anyway, I will conclude this missive by saying that if you can work past the way Sig speaks--the dialogue is rather clipped--then you're going to really, really love this book. Even the verbiage works, because Sig either can't read or isn't very good at it, so it all makes sense. Also the urchin-speak is adorable and also works very, very well. I strongly recommend this book, and not just because Sig gets beheaded in the course of the book and yet lives on to bring it all to a superb conclusion. Two other folks get sliced and diced along the way, and these are not at all bad things.
This was my first visit to the LaNague Federation, but it certainly won't be the last. Grab it if you can. Highly recommended.
I haven't handed out many 5 star reviews this year. Plenty of 4s, a few threes, a one (which really deserved less, but you can't do that.) Not many 5s. Just as an example, "American Gods" got a five, so that's the kind of quality we're talking here.
"Dydeetown World" is a book in the LaNague Federation series by Wilson, and the first I've dug into. It won't be the last. I am presupposing based on what I read here that this is an alternate history based on some post-apocalyptic version of the Earth. That's probably a very broad drawing, but never mind. I'll learn more as I go along. In this story our hero is one Sigmundo Dreyer, a private investigator of sorts, who is first approached to look for a missing person. The client is the presumed fiancé, a woman who also happens to be a clone. Of Jean Harlow. Really. There's a whole subplot of Sig's disdain for clones and what happens when he finds the missing person. But this is only the first of a series of vignettes that come to pass in the pages of this book, all of them eventually resolved in the last segment...and dammit, it all works, and it's even (no, seriously, wait for it)
Heart warming.
Now, this is NOT something I am accustomed to saying about a Wilson story. But when I finished Dydeetown, I had a smile on my face. And I read the last 50 or 60 pages straight through, rather late at night. I HAD to see how it was all going to resolve, and I slept very well afterward. At my age, that's kinda rare, so thanks, Dr. Paul. I appreciate it. Anyway, I will conclude this missive by saying that if you can work past the way Sig speaks--the dialogue is rather clipped--then you're going to really, really love this book. Even the verbiage works, because Sig either can't read or isn't very good at it, so it all makes sense. Also the urchin-speak is adorable and also works very, very well. I strongly recommend this book, and not just because Sig gets beheaded in the course of the book and yet lives on to bring it all to a superb conclusion. Two other folks get sliced and diced along the way, and these are not at all bad things.
This was my first visit to the LaNague Federation, but it certainly won't be the last. Grab it if you can. Highly recommended.
March 7, 2015
A simple old school sci-fi tale with a cyberpunk flare as written by a solid production writer. I grew up on this stuff, and am always overjoyed when I discover a new author and a new series that gives me that shiver of nostalgia.
The plot is immaterial yet compelling, the telling is remarkably fluid, and the looming dystopia is still completely believable 25 years after it was written. Even better, Wilson is a writer who cares about his characters and notices details.
The plot is immaterial yet compelling, the telling is remarkably fluid, and the looming dystopia is still completely believable 25 years after it was written. Even better, Wilson is a writer who cares about his characters and notices details.
April 11, 2010
Another enjoyable story--well, three stories, really. I like the world that Wilson has created, and the interesting people who inhabit it.
April 27, 2021
Of all the futuristic, "harder" sci-fi books that Wilson has written, Dydeetown Town is by far the most successful, largely because it finally emphasizes character and plot, which are Wilson's stronger points, over his interesting but somewhat shallow worlds.
Mixing private eye stories with genetic engineering and Orwellian government, Dydeetown World creates an intriguing subculture out of its cast of outcasts, black marketeers, runaway clones, and violent underworld figures. And in its three short tales, Wilson ends up crafting a complicated tale that would hold its own in the mystery genre, one with some legitimately surprising payoffs and some nice twists along the way. It's no Repairman Jack, but of Wilson's future-based books, it's easily his strongest piece, and well worth reading.
Mixing private eye stories with genetic engineering and Orwellian government, Dydeetown World creates an intriguing subculture out of its cast of outcasts, black marketeers, runaway clones, and violent underworld figures. And in its three short tales, Wilson ends up crafting a complicated tale that would hold its own in the mystery genre, one with some legitimately surprising payoffs and some nice twists along the way. It's no Repairman Jack, but of Wilson's future-based books, it's easily his strongest piece, and well worth reading.
November 18, 2023
“Dydeetown World” is a novel of three interlinking tales of a private detective taking on black marketeers, runaway clones, and violent underworld characters. Sig is the one lone private eye on a world with a Big Brother government and genetic engineering run amok and takes a case from a clone to locate a missing person….and things just go downhill from there! I loved all the characters especially Sig and the stories/novel are extremely creative and absolutely wild with fantastic world-building. Super entertaining and fun to read! One of my favorite sci-fi books of the year! I definitely am interested in reading more from this author. I just wish there was a sequel with Sig!
September 17, 2019
Read this in 3 days after finding it in a bin in the attic marked sci-fi. Read this 25 years ago and the story holds up today.
F. Paul Wilson is a great storyteller and this detective noir fiction he delivers with a bang. A quick read and if i remember correctly these were 3 short stories put together in one book. Some of his earliest work and the planet, clones, urchins, drugs and decapitating wire make it a must read.
Would recommend to anyone. A great book to take om a mini vacation.
Thomas.
F. Paul Wilson is a great storyteller and this detective noir fiction he delivers with a bang. A quick read and if i remember correctly these were 3 short stories put together in one book. Some of his earliest work and the planet, clones, urchins, drugs and decapitating wire make it a must read.
Would recommend to anyone. A great book to take om a mini vacation.
Thomas.
March 6, 2020
Loved It!!
Sig is a private dick that keeps his nose to the grind and hates anything rocking the boat. Then a clone walks into his office wanting him to find her very human fiance...and then all hell breaks loose. Sig will not get what he wants for a long time because now he's way over his head on action.
Great stuff and enjoyed every minute of it!!!
Sig is a private dick that keeps his nose to the grind and hates anything rocking the boat. Then a clone walks into his office wanting him to find her very human fiance...and then all hell breaks loose. Sig will not get what he wants for a long time because now he's way over his head on action.
Great stuff and enjoyed every minute of it!!!
July 17, 2019
I didn’t read any of the federation books. The sci fo stories just didn’t pull me in. This story was great. When this author is on his game is tops. Very entertains detective story without the over the top noir trappings.
July 8, 2018
Very good book, really easy going read with good action but it painted a very grim picture of the future earth.
August 22, 2019
I downloaded this en masse with a large group of freebies. I am not the least bit interested after reading the blurb.
December 18, 2019
One of the best Cyber Punk novels I've ever read. Wilson (better known for his horror novels) explores deeper topics of what makes a human (politically, socially, legally) in a crowded world.
April 7, 2021
Delightful, inventive, heart-warming, genuinely libertarian.
January 19, 2022
Great book! Sorry to say, there are a lot of parallels to modern-day America and politicians for sure.
January 31, 2024
Feels like Blade Runner lite.
April 21, 2010
F. Paul Wilson is best known for his horror fiction, particularly his bestselling vampires-among-the-Nazis, The Keep. I rather enjoyed that pot-boiler, but I like his LaNague Federation novels much more. This counts as fourth in the series chronologically, and if you're read the others you'll recognize features in the background. But it shares no characters with the other books and can be read as a standalone. In fact, in a lot of ways this makes the best introduction for the general reader. The first three novels, An Enemy of the State, Wheels Within Wheels and Healer are pretty explicitly libertarian science fiction, but here such themes are much more subtle. This takes place on a future Earth with very strict population control laws. You get one child and that's it--even if the child should die soon after birth. You can use your one-child allotment to have a clone--not of yourself necessarily, but say a famous person--this novel involves a clone of Jean Harlow. But they're not considered real people--they're slaves, owned by the person who had them cloned. And "extra" children, "urchins" not authorized by the state are non-persons as well. If their parents try to raise them, they're executed. The parents only option is to give them up to child gangs that live on the streets.
Enter into this world Siggy Dreyer, private eye. This is science-fiction all right, but it's also hard-boiled detective story--or at least its voice is, and I have to admit I don't particularly care for that genre at all, so it took me a while to warm up to this book--but I did in the end: it's a good yarn.
Enter into this world Siggy Dreyer, private eye. This is science-fiction all right, but it's also hard-boiled detective story--or at least its voice is, and I have to admit I don't particularly care for that genre at all, so it took me a while to warm up to this book--but I did in the end: it's a good yarn.
October 12, 2009
Dydeetown World,
Dydeetown World is actually three short stories strung together to form the whole. The characters, stories, and writing are all very simple yet interesting enough to keep a reader entertained.
The main character is a Private Eye who appears to be a bit down on his luck but his luck and his life all change when a clone of Jean Harlow enters his office seeking help. Jean Harlow leads us to the Lost Boys, which in turn leads us back to Jean Harlow weaving the stories together seamlessly.
I did enjoy the read but on the other hand I found the book to be a bit choppy in its pace. Although the stories flowed together nicely, I found the stories in themselves to be a bit thin. Perhaps F. Paul Wilson could have added more detail to the world building aspects of this book. I feel he also could have taken a bit more time developing the characters. This single book may have made a nice thick trilogy.
All in all the book was enjoyable even in its very simplistic form.
Dydeetown World is actually three short stories strung together to form the whole. The characters, stories, and writing are all very simple yet interesting enough to keep a reader entertained.
The main character is a Private Eye who appears to be a bit down on his luck but his luck and his life all change when a clone of Jean Harlow enters his office seeking help. Jean Harlow leads us to the Lost Boys, which in turn leads us back to Jean Harlow weaving the stories together seamlessly.
I did enjoy the read but on the other hand I found the book to be a bit choppy in its pace. Although the stories flowed together nicely, I found the stories in themselves to be a bit thin. Perhaps F. Paul Wilson could have added more detail to the world building aspects of this book. I feel he also could have taken a bit more time developing the characters. This single book may have made a nice thick trilogy.
All in all the book was enjoyable even in its very simplistic form.
June 26, 2013
This book focuses on two underclasses of people in the future. There are the "Realpeople" who have rights, etc. Then there are the "clones", who are genetic clones of other people (generally dead people, since the government limits clones to one-living-genome-at-a-time). Clones are recognized as people, but have no rights, and are generally slaves of realpeople. Frequently a clone owner will pimp out his clone for profit, for example.
But there is another class of people who officially don't even exist: the urchins. They come about because the government strictly limits population by insisting upon no more than one child per female. If a couple has a second or subsequent child, that child is killed when discovered. In order to avoid this, parents of such children will abandon their child to the "urchingangs", who will take care of such babies and children as best they can. Their staple food is rats.
In the highly-charged atmosphere these classes of people generate, the story evolves as a private investigator looks into the disappearance of a clone...
But there is another class of people who officially don't even exist: the urchins. They come about because the government strictly limits population by insisting upon no more than one child per female. If a couple has a second or subsequent child, that child is killed when discovered. In order to avoid this, parents of such children will abandon their child to the "urchingangs", who will take care of such babies and children as best they can. Their staple food is rats.
In the highly-charged atmosphere these classes of people generate, the story evolves as a private investigator looks into the disappearance of a clone...
July 19, 2007
This book is a classic "Sam Spade" style detective story, set in a grimy, but technologically advanced, future. The "beautiful dame" character is a clone of Jean Harlow that works in the red light district, and the tough-guy detective is addicted to simulated pleasure buttons affixed directly to his skull. Tossed into the mix is an orphan kid that befriends the detective, tugging heavily at the heartstrings. It's really a fairly silly book. Really. However, I read this one every couple of years, and my copy is so worn that the cover is a ratty mess and the whole book is split right down the middle! I fell in love with this book when I was 10, and will always love it, no matter how old I get.
January 28, 2011
I sort of want to rate this four stars due to its influence on me. A friend recommended it when we were teenagers and I read about half of it. Even though I quit on it (for whatever reason -- I was a teenager), a lot of the fun/funny sci-fi concepts stuck with me for such a long time that I looked it up maybe 15 years later and read it.
The first half held up OK. Not sure how much was nostalgia, but I enjoyed it even if it was obviously a bit "simple". The last half was less good but it was still nice to know how it ended after 15 years.
I could recommend it as juvenile sci-fi. I like the hard-boiled detective sci-fi vibe a lot and I'd like to find some other stories like that.
That is all I can say. I am fairly drunk. I like stories.
The first half held up OK. Not sure how much was nostalgia, but I enjoyed it even if it was obviously a bit "simple". The last half was less good but it was still nice to know how it ended after 15 years.
I could recommend it as juvenile sci-fi. I like the hard-boiled detective sci-fi vibe a lot and I'd like to find some other stories like that.
That is all I can say. I am fairly drunk. I like stories.
February 20, 2016
A little known and under-appreciated novella collection by F. Paul Wilson, one that showcases the adventures of Sigmundo Dreyer, a private eye operating in the future. A great combination of scifi and detective fiction, Wilson brings a humanity to Dreyer and what seems to be a rather dystopian world. Wilson has a real knack for writing sympathetic and likable protagonists (see his Repairman Jack novels), and despite his human failings, Dreyer is one of the good guys. Very, very enjoyable!
February 8, 2015
Took me literally two nights to get this over with. And not that I wanted to I just couldn't put it away. The wire scene is insane! Only imagining sn could pull off sth this crazy makes my brains boil. Overall a good story w a happy ending for those who love clones, conspiracies, seceding body parts and future impressions.
May 10, 2007
Not the greatest book from F. Paul Wilson. But it does have one great line:
Being decapitated will always rank as my most memorable experience.
Being decapitated will always rank as my most memorable experience.
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December 22, 2008I read this book more than 10 years ago. I liked the book, but now I can't remember the details....plan to re-read.
June 19, 2010
it's ok. i enjoyed it. hard-boiled detective with more heart than he knows he has kind of story.
September 6, 2014
Filamentous! I have not read anything quite like this. A PI novel with heart.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews