Necropolis, by Michael Dempsey

16 Aug

Format: ebook

Published: October 1, 2011
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Back cover blurb:
In a future where death is a thing of the past, how far would you go to solve your own murder?

Paul Donner is a NYPD detective struggling with a drinking problem and a marriage on the rocks. Then he and his wife get dead–shot to death in a “random” crime. Fifty years later, Donner is back–revived courtesy of the Shift, a process whereby inanimate DNA is re-activated.

This new “reborn” underclass is not only alive again, they’re growing younger, destined for a second childhood. The freakish side-effect of a retroviral attack on New York, the Shift has turned the world upside down. Beneath the protective geodesic Blister, clocks run backwards, technology is hidden behind a noir facade, and you can see Elvis at Radio City Music Hall ever night. In this unfamiliar retro-futurist world of maglev Studebakers and plasma tommy guns, Donner must search for those responsible for the destruction of his life. His quest for retribution, aided by Maggie, his holographic Girl Friday, leads him to the heart of the mystery surrounding the Shift’s origin and up against those who would use it to control a terrified nation.

My review:
I haven’t read much sci-fi for a while, so this was a refreshing change. The first half was great – innovative, written in the hard-boiled Chandler style and full of concepts that seemed totally conceivable for forty years in the future. I liked Donner and Maggie, and the villains were perfectly evil.

However, in the second half of the book I felt things dragged a bit, and found it easy to predict what was about to happen. I knew quite early on what one of the big gotchas would be, and that soured things for me a bit. This book was best when the sudden violence and twists were out of the blue.

My rating: 3.5/5

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Water for Elephants - The Movie Fan Site Starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon & Christoph Waltz

Age is a terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back.

The Rover - The Movie Fansite

A David Michod film starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson

Bookish Temptations

Bookish Temptations...Just Read. Feed your mind and open your heart.

The Book Hookup

FEED your NEED to READ!

Cosmopolis - The Movie Fansite. Film by David Cronenberg starring Robert Pattinson

"He didn't know what he wanted. And then he knew. He wanted to get a haircut."

The Cold Shower

No rules... No regrets... No return...

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 44 other followers

%d bloggers like this: