What do you think?
Rate this book
Gli uomini sono un problema (Biblioteca di un sole lontano)
ROMANZO BREVE (59 pagine) - FANTASCIENZA - Una Terra invasa da alieni imperscrutabili è il teatro di questo avvincente thriller di J.P. Kelley
Gli investigatori privati hanno sempre dovuto aggirarsi per vicoli oscuri e quartieri malfamati. Questo profondo e toccante romanzo breve, considerato tra i migliori del 2004 e del suo autore, non fa eccezione: la nostra protagonista, Fay Hardaway, si aggira per le strade pericolose e infide di un vicino futuro assai particolare, dove la nostra Terra è stata invasa da alieni potenti ed enigmatici che hanno sterminato tutti i maschi umani e guidano la popolazione femminile secondo dettami imperscrutabili e con mano inflessibile. Alieni dagli scopi misteriosi e che parlano solo attraverso la voce dei loro robot, alieni con cui Fay dovrà inevitabilmente scontrarsi in un'indagine dagli aspetti oscuri e misteriosi (come nella tradizione delle migliori "detective stories").
Gli investigatori privati hanno sempre dovuto aggirarsi per vicoli oscuri e quartieri malfamati. Questo profondo e toccante romanzo breve, considerato tra i migliori del 2004 e del suo autore, non fa eccezione: la nostra protagonista, Fay Hardaway, si aggira per le strade pericolose e infide di un vicino futuro assai particolare, dove la nostra Terra è stata invasa da alieni potenti ed enigmatici che hanno sterminato tutti i maschi umani e guidano la popolazione femminile secondo dettami imperscrutabili e con mano inflessibile. Alieni dagli scopi misteriosi e che parlano solo attraverso la voce dei loro robot, alieni con cui Fay dovrà inevitabilmente scontrarsi in un'indagine dagli aspetti oscuri e misteriosi (come nella tradizione delle migliori "detective stories").
80 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2004
42 people want to read
About the author
James Patrick Kelly
437 books144 followersJames Patrick Kelly (please, call him Jim) has had an eclectic writing career. He has written novels, short stories, essays, reviews, poetry, plays and planetarium shows. His short novel Burn won the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebula Award in 2007. He has won the World Science Fiction Society’s Hugo Award twice: in 1996, for his novelette “Think Like A Dinosaur” and in 2000, for his novelette, “Ten to the Sixteenth to One.” His fiction has been translated into eighteen languages. He produces two podcasts: James Patrick Kelly's StoryPod on Audible and the Free Reads Podcast (Yes, it’s free). His most recent publishing venture is the ezine James Patrick Kelly’s Strangeways. His website is www.jimkelly.net.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 15, 2022
Kelly's 2004 novelette opens with the neatest bit of in media res scene-setting I've seen in years, crisply outlining a nightmarish near-future world as economically as Heinlein at his best. Bravo!
The protag is a hard-boiled PI with girlfriend problems, sitting in the obligatory rundown office, thinking about "having a consult with Johnnie Walker," when a new client flies in: "The devil spread its wings and swooped up onto my file cabinet, ruffling the hardcopy on my desk." Well, I think I'll let you read the rest of the background for yourself, though I will say that this isn't a fantasy. You have a real treat in store. I'm having fun right now, rereading the best bits. 4.5 stars
Free online copy here,
https://manybooks.net/titles/kellyjot...
Besides the chapbook, it's been reprinted several times:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...
And there's a sequel, "The Last Judgment", reprinted in his 2017 collection "The Promise of Space." I liked that one a lot, too.
The protag is a hard-boiled PI with girlfriend problems, sitting in the obligatory rundown office, thinking about "having a consult with Johnnie Walker," when a new client flies in: "The devil spread its wings and swooped up onto my file cabinet, ruffling the hardcopy on my desk." Well, I think I'll let you read the rest of the background for yourself, though I will say that this isn't a fantasy. You have a real treat in store. I'm having fun right now, rereading the best bits. 4.5 stars
Free online copy here,
https://manybooks.net/titles/kellyjot...
Besides the chapbook, it's been reprinted several times:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...
And there's a sequel, "The Last Judgment", reprinted in his 2017 collection "The Promise of Space." I liked that one a lot, too.
November 28, 2015
the background story about the devils and disappearance of the men was good but it needed to be fleshed out more. the detective main story was crap. ended stupid. pointless really.
August 12, 2018
Quite a good short work (novelette, I think). A private investigator gets an unusual job, from an unusual client, in a nightmarish world.
October 31, 2012
I've been a man all my life and have been accused on many things; some valid and some not. I have thought about a world without men and James Patrick Kelly to it to the next level with his novella Men are Trouble. The story would have been improved if the disappearance of men would have been better explained but, alas this isn't the case. The story reads like a 1950 private detective novel as the main character, Fay Hardaway searches for the reasons for the suicide of a grieving mother’s daughter. This story falls under science fiction but it defiantly has a twist. I don’t think it is a book for everyone but certainly for a chosen few.
March 31, 2022
A brilliant hardboiled story set in a dystopian future 'bedevilled' by alien presence and its consequences. Recommended to all mystery-lovers, especially the admirers of Chandler.
January 9, 2020
This is a great little hardboiled mystery story, in the spirit of Dashiell Hammett. The setting is a world in which men have been disappeared, taking place about a generation after the fact.
It's a very traumatized world, with women becoming randomly pregnant and bearing only girl children. It's a barely functioning civilization. It is interesting though, is this really what would happen if men all suddenly disappeared? Would women eventually adjust? That seems to be what the story was implying near the end, but it's hard to say.
It's a very traumatized world, with women becoming randomly pregnant and bearing only girl children. It's a barely functioning civilization. It is interesting though, is this really what would happen if men all suddenly disappeared? Would women eventually adjust? That seems to be what the story was implying near the end, but it's hard to say.
February 19, 2011
A Creative Commons short story freely available from the authour's website, it starts out as an old fashioned Mike Hammer murder mystery.
Murder mysteries aren't my usual fare, and in this case, I didn't care about the case or the detective. Only the sci-fi near future background is actually engaging.
There's lots going on in here, but most of it ends up as hanging threads, not plotlines. I've read a lot of novels that would have been better cut down to short stories - this is the reverse. If it had been fleshed out more, I likely would have liked it better.
Murder mysteries aren't my usual fare, and in this case, I didn't care about the case or the detective. Only the sci-fi near future background is actually engaging.
There's lots going on in here, but most of it ends up as hanging threads, not plotlines. I've read a lot of novels that would have been better cut down to short stories - this is the reverse. If it had been fleshed out more, I likely would have liked it better.
Read
June 12, 2012probably overrated this one. while i liked the main conceit of the story, there was a central question that was never resolved to my satisfaction.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews