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This is my first Scalzi read, and it's rare that a murder mystery thriller gets four stars from me, even when its also scifi.

On his second day as an FBI agent, Chris Shane, a "Haden" (got a pandemic flu that rendered him conscious but unable to move or respond to stimuli) in a new "Threep" (a robotic body he controls from afar via a computer interface added to his brain) and his partner are called into a case where a loveseat has been tossed onto a car, and in the room it cam freom a dead body with a slit throat (already removed when they come in to take over from local police) was found along with a rather confused Integrator who doesn't seem to know what happened.

This is a well-written, fast paced FBI-police-procedure scifi novel that examines issues that can arise where high tech is involved; this is no easy mystery to piece together. I will probably read the next book in this series, despite the fact that I don't like everything that goes on in them (language, violence are more than I usually like).

This sounds exciting Karin. It is on my TBR list. Thanks for your review.

Susie wrote: "This sounds exciting Karin. It is on my TBR list. Thanks for your review."

Did you notice that Scalzi never uses any language that identified the gender of Chris? There are actually two versions of the audio book done...one with a female reader and one with a male reader. I listened to the one with a female reader first so Chris was always a "she" to me.

I hadn't realized that. I listened to the other version.

Anyone that is interested in reading more about gender in the book can do so here (warning, there may be some spoilers if you haven't read the book):

I noticed that it was never stated and wondered myself, but I read it in print, and the author did write the POV like a man's voice. However, this is common for authors; often when an author writes a POV of a different sex, they unconsciously write incorrectly--this is discussed in The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us.

If, however, I'd heard and audiobook with a female narrator, I might have overlooked the writing that is more like a man than a woman, since writing differences aren't 100 percent correct all of the time, especially in the weaker male or female voice (the article says weaker male voice). By writing in the first person (which is what he does in Old Man's War as well) he can easily avoid gender pronouns for the protagonist. In fact, the only way to insert them would be rather awkward or involve the protagonist overhearing or reading something.

I'm not much of a murder-mystery-thriller type of person, but you've convinced me to give this a try. Thanks for the review!

Kathryn wrote: "I'm not much of a murder-mystery-thriller type of person, but you've convinced me to give this a try. Thanks for the review!"

Great--I hope you like it.