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Welcome to Purgatory
On the Dark Side of the Moon, the far side that never sees Earth is a world less inhibited than our own. Less inhibited, less super ego, and less lawful. A bastion for those hunted on Earth, a thriving Mecca of corruption and unbridled excess--unless it interferes with someone important, like Brass.
It looks a lot like a Las Vegas version of ancient Mesopotamia.
The exposition has a tour guide quality to it, one can almost hear the tinny voice over the speakers as relevant facts are detailed to the reader summarily. It works well at creating that disembodied sense and distrust of the mechanical delivery, which plays brilliantly into the story itself.
Fletcher Brass is the iron fist ruling Purgatory. He is a self-made man living by a code, the Brass Code. It is very Hegelian Superman and not Ayn Rand, that blurb comment seemed to be a lure; it's more Milken than Rand.
Purgatory is a restless place with the denizens adopting a laissez-faire attitude. The city itself is a mishmash of pre-Christian architecture; Ancient Near East fans will get a kick out of all the references in Sin, the main city.
There's a new guy in town: Damien Justus.
Damien Justus, great name, the one who tames and is just. Perfect for a cop. The characters names are hysterical: Nat U. Reilly, Dash Chin, Dr. Janus. In context, they are both punny and a critique. Let's just say that it's been awhile since residents have seen a cop like him.
Hard science fiction fans: Enough legit science to make people happy. Seriously, I feel much more well versed in lunar procedures. And might I add that it was a delight to not see the same 10,000 words used; in fact, I collected a few of my favorites: sintered, hummocky, internecine, lugubrious, caroms, ablative.
So for a book with a body count that exceeded my fingers and toes it was pretty funny. Really. The humor is dry, even campy at times, but psychotic. Probably says all kinds of things about me that I enjoyed this immensely. The violence is rendered with such an amoral compass that it's hard to be upset, rather I just watched as it blithely happened.
Needless to say, with all the deaths someone has to be in charge of investigating and that's Justus. There is a good bit of strategizing and gamesmanship employed--Win. And it is a wild ride as we traverse Purgatory dashing from murder to murder. All things must come to an end though, and I took a perverse pleasure at the inevitable. My biggest fear is that the end would be disappointing after all the theatrics--Nope. *Big smile*
Overall, a nonstop, murder-filled lunar romp with chess masters.
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