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The Steel Eye
Swill a little grease and enter a world run by corporate robots spanning multiple bodies; cop robots armed and dangerous; robot entertainers, drinkers, workers, villains, and the odd innocent victim. Into that hard-boiled world rolls the steel eye, a robot detective who faces treachery from friends and allies but keeps on tracking his elusive quarry.
151 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Chet Gottfried
21 books5 followersA freelancer in book production for forty years, I live with my wife Sue, and our three ex-feral cats, in State College, Pennsylvania. I'm an active member of SFWA, with stories in Jim Baen's Universe, Aboriginal SF, and Isaac Asimov's SF, along with a large variety of stories in small press and online publications.
In 1984, Space & Time published my novel The Steel Eye to start its book line. Thirty years later, and ReAnimus Press has published my new fantasy novel, The Gilded Basilisk. That was followed by Einar and the Cursed City (2014) and Einar and the Myrtledale Conspiracy (2015), each of which won the Preditors & Editors readers poll award for best YA novel. My following novel, an SF space opera, Into the Horsebutt Nebula won the P&E award for best cover (one can't have everything, or so it seems). And after a period of quiet (and thought and contemplation) comes Thora's Dagger, a sequel to the Gilded Basilisk but a novel that can be read independently.
My website lookoutnow features over a thousand pages that cover nature photography, cartoons, and games, as well as travelogues from trips to the UK Lake District, Iceland, and the U.S. Southwest.
I have an FB author page and one over at Amazon.
In 1984, Space & Time published my novel The Steel Eye to start its book line. Thirty years later, and ReAnimus Press has published my new fantasy novel, The Gilded Basilisk. That was followed by Einar and the Cursed City (2014) and Einar and the Myrtledale Conspiracy (2015), each of which won the Preditors & Editors readers poll award for best YA novel. My following novel, an SF space opera, Into the Horsebutt Nebula won the P&E award for best cover (one can't have everything, or so it seems). And after a period of quiet (and thought and contemplation) comes Thora's Dagger, a sequel to the Gilded Basilisk but a novel that can be read independently.
My website lookoutnow features over a thousand pages that cover nature photography, cartoons, and games, as well as travelogues from trips to the UK Lake District, Iceland, and the U.S. Southwest.
I have an FB author page and one over at Amazon.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 14, 2021
"Rust off!" has become my favorite insult, though I don't know any all-metal beings to use it on. Chet Gottfried's "The Steel Eye" is a robot private eye, wisecracking, flippant and unflappable, and just plain fun. This novel was ahead of its time 35 years ago, and it has lost none of its luster and shine in a new era of robotics, AI, and corporate villainy.
Gottfried's endearing robot detective "wheels through mechanized murder, corruption, wealth, and slums," as the back cover promises. "The steel eye has shaken down robots in Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine and dented machines in Pig Iron. And now he’s ready to cross your circuits in his first full-length novel," first released in 1984 by Space & Time, now published by ReAnimus Press with new cover art and the 21st Century bonus of being available as an ebook. My Kindle is packed full of highlights. Witty, clever, fun one-liners abound in the fast-paced, action-packed narrative.
We meet robots "half-a-battery removed from the scrap pile." We see surprisingly human traits in a metal army of Dreadnoughts who are "busy rearranging their circuits, preparing to short themselves. It was the latest. You could get a good high from it, visions of Nirvana, that spaceport in the sky" and "Dreadnoughts getting all the grease they could swill."
The chapter titles are hilarious. Place names, too: "in a plush hole called the Lavaslide, a Red Bearing bar in Red Bearing territory. It was popular enough, having machines, humans, and other aliens performing together in various combinations.
"Red Bearing" controls the slums of a city run by Kronin and Malacide, "the two industrial machines that split the city between them. They tolerated Red Bearing but otherwise didn’t welcome the spirit of free enterprise. In other words, Kronin and Malacide were sanctioned by the government—which consisted of larger industrial monsters."
The Steel Eye encounters corruption and incompetence in a plot full of surprise twists. Spoilers prevent me from talking about the "frankenstein" line of metal beings pieced together from the scraps of others. Or the vast mind of Kronin.
As a reader who skims the fight scenes, I love the metal warriors. Instead of the bloodshed of battle, it's acid and sizzling circuits: "After cutting his locomotion circuits, I shoved him away. He lay on the floor. In the new silence, I could hear short after short snapping and sizzling in his hulk. Smoke came out of the opening I made and an acid odor filled the room."
That's my kind of battle scene.
Fans of noir detectives are sure to love this story. Full of fun and surprises, it should be a beloved classic for years to come.
Gottfried's endearing robot detective "wheels through mechanized murder, corruption, wealth, and slums," as the back cover promises. "The steel eye has shaken down robots in Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine and dented machines in Pig Iron. And now he’s ready to cross your circuits in his first full-length novel," first released in 1984 by Space & Time, now published by ReAnimus Press with new cover art and the 21st Century bonus of being available as an ebook. My Kindle is packed full of highlights. Witty, clever, fun one-liners abound in the fast-paced, action-packed narrative.
We meet robots "half-a-battery removed from the scrap pile." We see surprisingly human traits in a metal army of Dreadnoughts who are "busy rearranging their circuits, preparing to short themselves. It was the latest. You could get a good high from it, visions of Nirvana, that spaceport in the sky" and "Dreadnoughts getting all the grease they could swill."
The chapter titles are hilarious. Place names, too: "in a plush hole called the Lavaslide, a Red Bearing bar in Red Bearing territory. It was popular enough, having machines, humans, and other aliens performing together in various combinations.
"Red Bearing" controls the slums of a city run by Kronin and Malacide, "the two industrial machines that split the city between them. They tolerated Red Bearing but otherwise didn’t welcome the spirit of free enterprise. In other words, Kronin and Malacide were sanctioned by the government—which consisted of larger industrial monsters."
The Steel Eye encounters corruption and incompetence in a plot full of surprise twists. Spoilers prevent me from talking about the "frankenstein" line of metal beings pieced together from the scraps of others. Or the vast mind of Kronin.
As a reader who skims the fight scenes, I love the metal warriors. Instead of the bloodshed of battle, it's acid and sizzling circuits: "After cutting his locomotion circuits, I shoved him away. He lay on the floor. In the new silence, I could hear short after short snapping and sizzling in his hulk. Smoke came out of the opening I made and an acid odor filled the room."
That's my kind of battle scene.
Fans of noir detectives are sure to love this story. Full of fun and surprises, it should be a beloved classic for years to come.
August 9, 2022
"Rust off!" has become my favorite insult, though I don't know any all-metal beings to use it on. Chet Gottfried's "The Steel Eye" is a robot private eye, wisecracking, flippant and unflappable, and just plain fun. This novel was ahead of its time 35 years ago, and it has lost none of its luster and shine in a new era of robotics, AI, and corporate villainy.
Gottfried's endearing robot detective "wheels through mechanized murder, corruption, wealth, and slums," as the back cover promises. "The steel eye has shaken down robots in Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine and dented machines in Pig Iron. And now he’s ready to cross your circuits in his first full-length novel," first released in 1984 by Space & Time, now published by ReAnimus Press with new cover art and the 21st Century bonus of being available as an ebook. My Kindle is packed full of highlights. Witty, clever, fun one-liners abound in the fast-paced, action-packed narrative.
We meet robots "half-a-battery removed from the scrap pile." We see surprisingly human traits in a metal army of Dreadnoughts who are "busy rearranging their circuits, preparing to short themselves. It was the latest. You could get a good high from it, visions of Nirvana, that spaceport in the sky" and "Dreadnoughts getting all the grease they could swill."
The chapter titles are hilarious. Place names, too: "in a plush hole called the Lavaslide, a Red Bearing bar in Red Bearing territory. It was popular enough, having machines, humans, and other aliens performing together in various combinations.
"Red Bearing" controls the slums of a city run by Kronin and Malacide, "the two industrial machines that split the city between them. They tolerated Red Bearing but otherwise didn’t welcome the spirit of free enterprise. In other words, Kronin and Malacide were sanctioned by the government—which consisted of larger industrial monsters."
The Steel Eye encounters corruption and incompetence in a plot full of surprise twists. Spoilers prevent me from talking about the "frankenstein" line of metal beings pieced together from the scraps of others. Or the vast mind of Kronin.
As a reader who skims the fight scenes, I love the metal warriors. Instead of the bloodshed of battle, it's acid and sizzling circuits: "After cutting his locomotion circuits, I shoved him away. He lay on the floor. In the new silence, I could hear short after short snapping and sizzling in his hulk. Smoke came out of the opening I made and an acid odor filled the room."
That's my kind of battle scene.
Fans of noir detectives are sure to love this story. Full of fun and surprises, it should be a beloved classic for years to come.
Gottfried's endearing robot detective "wheels through mechanized murder, corruption, wealth, and slums," as the back cover promises. "The steel eye has shaken down robots in Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine and dented machines in Pig Iron. And now he’s ready to cross your circuits in his first full-length novel," first released in 1984 by Space & Time, now published by ReAnimus Press with new cover art and the 21st Century bonus of being available as an ebook. My Kindle is packed full of highlights. Witty, clever, fun one-liners abound in the fast-paced, action-packed narrative.
We meet robots "half-a-battery removed from the scrap pile." We see surprisingly human traits in a metal army of Dreadnoughts who are "busy rearranging their circuits, preparing to short themselves. It was the latest. You could get a good high from it, visions of Nirvana, that spaceport in the sky" and "Dreadnoughts getting all the grease they could swill."
The chapter titles are hilarious. Place names, too: "in a plush hole called the Lavaslide, a Red Bearing bar in Red Bearing territory. It was popular enough, having machines, humans, and other aliens performing together in various combinations.
"Red Bearing" controls the slums of a city run by Kronin and Malacide, "the two industrial machines that split the city between them. They tolerated Red Bearing but otherwise didn’t welcome the spirit of free enterprise. In other words, Kronin and Malacide were sanctioned by the government—which consisted of larger industrial monsters."
The Steel Eye encounters corruption and incompetence in a plot full of surprise twists. Spoilers prevent me from talking about the "frankenstein" line of metal beings pieced together from the scraps of others. Or the vast mind of Kronin.
As a reader who skims the fight scenes, I love the metal warriors. Instead of the bloodshed of battle, it's acid and sizzling circuits: "After cutting his locomotion circuits, I shoved him away. He lay on the floor. In the new silence, I could hear short after short snapping and sizzling in his hulk. Smoke came out of the opening I made and an acid odor filled the room."
That's my kind of battle scene.
Fans of noir detectives are sure to love this story. Full of fun and surprises, it should be a beloved classic for years to come.
May 27, 2023
A futuristic wisecracking robot PI is sitting in his office when there’s a knock at the door. No, it’s not a dame with legs that won’t quit. It’s a machine posing as a human, or a human playing at a machine, or some synthesis of the two, a cyborg or maybe an android. It’s all horribly convoluted. Media res is a great technique, and info-dumpy text crawls have been passe since George Lucas got away with it that first couple times with Episodes IV and V. But still, some background would have helped, even if it were a bit intrusive.
No sooner than our Machine Mike Hammer does his initial interview with a potential client, however, than a bomb goes off. When the smoke clears, he’s suspected of engineering the hit himself. He has his own list of suspects for the dastardly deed, the biggest one being a Borg-like cluster of machines that have formed together into one giant mechanized gestalt.
The Steel Eye contains quips galore, lots of witty banter, and delightfully kitschy argot. It has a nice throwback vibe to it, striking a humorous tone somewhere between the slapstick of Robert Asprin’s space operas and the slightly more sophisticated, sub-Swift satire of Doug Adams. Too often, though, it suffers from the old “white room” syndrome, not doing enough to establish setting or enough worldbuilding. The cleverest dialogue in the world delivered by the most acid-tongued of cynical cops and criminals will ultimately lack punch if the reader can’t get a bead on where said-conversation is taking place, and more importantly, why.
Still, the epithet “rust off” is definitely a keeper—as another reviewer pointed out—and deserves to make the same kind of greater cultural penetration that Heinlein’s “grok” achieved after a time.
No sooner than our Machine Mike Hammer does his initial interview with a potential client, however, than a bomb goes off. When the smoke clears, he’s suspected of engineering the hit himself. He has his own list of suspects for the dastardly deed, the biggest one being a Borg-like cluster of machines that have formed together into one giant mechanized gestalt.
The Steel Eye contains quips galore, lots of witty banter, and delightfully kitschy argot. It has a nice throwback vibe to it, striking a humorous tone somewhere between the slapstick of Robert Asprin’s space operas and the slightly more sophisticated, sub-Swift satire of Doug Adams. Too often, though, it suffers from the old “white room” syndrome, not doing enough to establish setting or enough worldbuilding. The cleverest dialogue in the world delivered by the most acid-tongued of cynical cops and criminals will ultimately lack punch if the reader can’t get a bead on where said-conversation is taking place, and more importantly, why.
Still, the epithet “rust off” is definitely a keeper—as another reviewer pointed out—and deserves to make the same kind of greater cultural penetration that Heinlein’s “grok” achieved after a time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews