Nightmare Blue

by Gardner Dozois, George Alec Effinger

Nightmare Blue: the most addictive drug in the universe. The alien race known as the Aensalords alone know from whence it comes, and are its sole purveyors. Already its effects are visible on Earth—in the stark, raving eyes of the hopelessly addicted and enslaved. Now two agents set out to find the source: Jaeger, the last private detective in the peaceful world of the future, and Corcail Sendijen, a lobster-like alien once a servant of the Aensalords themselves. But Earth alone is not all that is at stake—for it seems humans are merely test subjects, and the Aensalords have plans that could endanger the entire galaxy.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Genres: Science Fiction

185 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Gardner Raymond Dozois was an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004. He won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, both as an editor and a writer of short fiction.
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois

http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nightmare Blue is an interstellar detective novel featuring a noir-ish human private eye and his alien sidekick investigating the titular drug trade. It's a fun read for both mystery and science fiction fans, with some good chuckle-worthy bits along the way. One of the characters speaks in a perfect Yoda-voice, quite amusing in this book that was written a few years before Star Wars.

[William Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been in my collection a long time, and is one I come back to from time to time. The Blue of the title is a drug , instantly addictive, and withdrawal means death.

Who's pushing it, and why?

There are aliens, so it's no great leap to guess they're involved. But there's also opposition to the protag's investigation from the human authorities, so there's no support to be had there.

It's quite dystopian - the writing evokes sleaze and a broken society, and while you hope for a happy ending - there's a race against the clock going on - there's nothing in the author's style that promises you'll get one.

So yes, it's an adventure/thriller, more like the Big Sleep than the Thirty-Nine Steps. The aliens are unimportant in one sense - writing the novel today you could easily substitute terrorists or an unfriendly nation with strong science, and tell much the same tale.

[Gordon Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

My all time favourite book - bar none.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun read. The cover had me thinking I was getting a sci-fi. It was much more of an action-adventure with a couple space ships.

[Zantaeus Glom · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Nightmare Blue' is an especially boisterous, quicksilver yarn by Gardner Dozois & George Alec Effinger which reads like a super-gung ho, boys own sf Raymond Chandler yarn with jolly big spaceships and menacing mammalian, intergalactic despots rather than murderously convoluted blackmailing sexpots. The abundance of barnstorming action and nifty alien drug conspiracy yields a more than generous amount of quick-read entertainment.

The meet cute betwixt our quick-fisted pivate dick Karl Jaeger and his weirdling, mind-reading alien compatriot Corcail Sendijen runs thusly:

'a grotesque form separated slowly from the shadows and slithered forward. Jaeger's breath hissed in his throat. God! What a monster! The thing was huge, a few inches taller than Jaeger and much broader. Its body was a nightmarish cross between an octopus and a lobster; thick tentacles swayed like living ropes, and huge pincers were half-concealed beneath a chitinous carapace. Set in a neckless, lumpy head, its eyes were large and golden, and surprisingly intelligent.

The eyes were looking at Jaeger.

Oh! The opening line is pretty darn spiffy an' all: 'Karl Jaeger Was a Dead man. (Tres Hard Boiled, nicht wahr?)

Rollicking stuff! (I have deducted a star due to the irksome ubiquity of the word 'grim')

[Clyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a worn copy of Nightmare Blue recently in a used book store. I was familiar with Gardner R. Dozois because of his annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies, but hadn't read any of his own work. Nightmare Blue was a pleasant surprise; Dozois and his coauthor, George Alec Effinger, wrote a very good story.
Basically, the story is a cross-genre mix of crime and SF. Nightmare blue is a drug, a terribly addictive drug. It is the perfect slave drug because one hit and you are hooked for life. If you don't get it you die -- it is that simple. Unfortunately nightmare blue has started showing up on Earth. An unlikely duo, Jaeger a human PI and Sendijen a lobster-like alien, have to find and stop the source. The stakes are sky-high.
Recommended.
(I just found out that Baen have reissued an ebook version.
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1772-nigh...)

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1981 grade B

George Alec Effinger

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5...