Book Review: "The Blue-Haired Bombshell" by John Zakour

[jpskewedthrone]

The Blue-Haired Bombshell is the fifth book in the Zachary Nixon Johnson series from John Zakour. I really like the main character in this series, and I like the humorous and over-the-top riff on detective noir fiction with all of the SF elements mixed in.





In this book, we get to see the relationship between the Earth and the Moon in this SF future, and it isn't good. Most of the book revolves around the fact that the Moon would like independence from the Earth, for various reasons, not the least of which is that the Earth uses the Moon as a dumping ground for its toxic waste. Zachary Nixon Johnson gets caught up in the all of the political mess when three of the members of the World Council are killed days before the vote on independence is to be made. One of those killed is someone Zach knew well (even though he despised her). So he's off to find out who killed her . . . and he isn't getting paid for this one.

In addition to the loveable HARV, the computer implant that's attached to Zach's brain, we're also introduced to a new intelligent gun called GUS. HARV and GUS don't quite get along, but I did like the new character and the conflicts it brings into the story. I also liked the plotline as a whole.

However, this book wasn't as polished writing-wise as the previous one, and I thought the plot was a little rocky in the first half of the book. I like the fact that we aren't thrown into the middle of the hiring of Zach in the first chapter or two, as in the first three novels (that always seemed a little too abrupt to me), but this one might have taken too long in the set-up. And I was also disappointed that the author didn't do more with HARV in this novel. In the previous one, we end with HARV actually making the decision himself to kill someone. There was a little detail about how this affected him and Zach and their relationship at the end of the book, but I was hoping that the ramifications of that would be dealt with in more depth here and they weren't. There's a fleeting mention that HARV has killed before in this book, but that's it. In fact, the usual interplay between Zach and HARV is missing from this novel, probably because of the interaction they're having with GUS, but one of the reasons I like reading these is because of the way in which Zach and HARV change during the course of the books.

So not as good as the previous book in this series, but still an enjoyable, fun read. I'll definitely continue reading the series.

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Comments

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Didn't Zakour have a writing partner before?

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

The first three books in the series were co-written with Lawrence Ganem. But the most recent ones have been with just John Zakour.