Meet Jack Meter
Written: Mar 16 '07 (Updated Mar 16 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: fast-paced, non-stop action; sympathetic protagonist
Cons: pace can get breathless in places
The Bottom Line: Cross-genre sci fi/hard-boiled detective novel featuring a smart-mouthed private dick trying to track down a villain who has nefarious plans for the things he stole from various alien worlds.
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| jc_hall's Full Review: Benoit - Metered Space |
PI Jack Meter is not a happy man. His beloved girlfriend, Annie, has been dead two years, and he was so traumatized by her sudden and violent death that he had been institutionalised for all that time. But no sooner has he returned to his old haunts than he gets transported to an alien world where strange creatures called the Thrittene try to engage his help in finding a thief whom they claim stole something of vast importance to them. With their help, Jack gets transported to other alien worlds, each stranger than the one before, and all the aliens he encounters tell more or less the same story. A male human had stolen something vital from them and now their worlds, all somehow connected, are becoming unbalanced.
From his communications with these aliens, Jack comes to realize that Annie, a research scientist, had been involved in the logistics of world-to-world travel prior to her death. As Jack tries to hunt down the human responsible for the theft of essential pieces of all the alien worlds, he becomes embroiled in the very real physical dangers that inter-world travel entails. As for the culprit, he’s intelligent and arrogant, and has plans that will shock the world-weary Jack into decisive action, even if it breaks his heart and sears his soul.
The voice of the novel is very much hard-boiled PI detective fiction (think Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton). However, the meat of the novel is decidedly Sci Fi. Metered Space is a fast-paced, action-packed ride that propels you, ready or not, from one strange alien world to exponentially stranger ones.
From the imagination of SciFi author, M. D. Benoit, has already come the next instalment in the Jack Meter series, Meter Made. I’ve already started on it. All I can say is that it’s even more intriguing (a whole building gone missing and no-one the wiser?) and even more of a frantic ride than Metered Space.
A cross-genre, fast-paced, Sci Fi novel that’s as original as they come, Metered Space will appeal to science fiction readers who love reading about aliens and inter-world travel. With its sympathetic, albeit smart-mouthed, protagonist, and a host of well-developed characters, both human and alien, Metered Space will give you reason to mete out space in your time to read this novel in one or two sittings.
Jack Meter has his own official blog at http://jackmeter.wordpress.com. Go check him out—this hard-boiled, world-weary PI has a distinctive voice and style that will either make you chuckle or make you want to tell him to seek much-needed therapy.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jc_hall
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Member: JC Hall
Location: Toronto, Canada
Reviews written: 199
Trusted by: 54 members
About Me:
Going back to Vancouver for Christmas! Happy Holidays, everyone!!
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