Fairy Tale Spotlight: TekWar [Book Review]

"TekWar" is a science fiction novel written by William Shatner. It was published in 1989. It is a very strange view into the 22nd century where robots have taken over most every job you can imagine. There is also a drug called Tek that can make your fantasies come true, or at least it will seem like it.

Despite the name, the story is more of a missing person's private detective story. It almost entirely takes place in Mexico as well, so there is a lot of random Spanish words thrown into the dialog. This is something I remember seeing back in the 90's whenever Mexicans were main characters. I think they still do it a little today. It's all mostly English, and it never holds the book back at all.

The story centers around Jake, a cop turned private investigator, who has been tasked with finding a missing professor and his daughter. Along the way he finds the daughter's copy android who acts just like her and has all of her memories. Weirdly enough, they are forced to work together to find the real girl. I've never really seen anything like this before, and I found the coupling to be really cool.

The world itself is halfway to being a dystopia, but it never quite makes it there. It functions well enough and just comes across as a futuristic depiction of modern society. The omnipresent robots are actually really amusing. Pretty much if there is a job nobody wants to do, a robot is doing it now. I think this was my favorite thing about the entire universe.

I don't really want to spoil anything about the main plot, but I should say that I did not think much about the ending. It felt kind of forced, and I felt it lacked the realism and impact of the majority of the book. That said, if you are looking for a 90's style, gritty scifi to read, I do recommend it. It's not the best thing out there, but it's certainly far from the worst.

This blog was written on July 26, 2023.

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