Review: Brisk Money by Adam Christopher
Brisk Money by Adam Christopher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
As part of Sci-Fi Month 2016, I'd made plans to read Adam Christopher's Made to Kill, but since this is a short prequel story it made sense to knock this one out of the way first. It's a quick read, roughly 30-odd pages, and provides a nice little introduction for what's ahead as Christopher's series get properly underway. Unfortunately, it's also a bit underwhelming and I'm not quite sure yet just how indispensable a read it may be.
What I did like was the small bit of world building that went into this short story. This is LA, circa 1962. Robots are a thing, and most of them have come and gone. Raymond Electromatic is one of the last ones, and he was built to carry a badge. He's a PI, but since he's been built with 60s era technology, his memory capacity is rather limited, which requires him to upload his memories every day to a 100-pound tape reel and scrub blank the tape already in his head while he recharges. And if this sounds somewhat problematic, well, you ain't no dummy then.
There's a minor mystery at work here, some murder, but mostly Brisk Money feels like a warm-up act for Made To Kill. It's a bit thin on story, with the focus primarily on the characters of Ray and his secretary, Ada. The ending provides a nice little twist, and this story ultimately succeeds for me because I'm even more intrigued by these character dynamics and the promise they show as I prepare to dive into the first book of the LA Trilogy next.
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