John Varley writes fun sci-fi in imaginative future settings. Irontown Blues is set a few centuries in the future on a fully developed and populated Luna, one of several planets or moons that humans live on since the Invaders took over Old Earth.
On this future Luna, Chris Bach is a private investigator who lives a fantasy of modeling himself after the PIs of 20th century novels and films. The fact that he still has access to this material, and that even his neighborhood is modeled after 20th century earth seems remarkable, as if someone in the 21st century built an entire neighborhood modeled after some medieval European village and embraced the music, literature, dress, and culture from that period all the time. That is essentially how Bach lives.
He and his faithful dog Sherlock hang out in their office waiting for clients. Just like in the old noir stories Chris loves, a mysterious woman comes in with an unusual request: help her track down the guy who gave her leprosy. As it turns out, it's all a ruse, and Chris is taken back to his time on the police force, when he took part in an ill-fated raid in Irontown.
For much of the book Chris is an unwitting victim, swept about by forces he doesn't understand. His enhanced dog, Sherlock, sometimes has more a clue than Chris does! In fact, a large part of the book is told from Sherlock's perspective, thanks to a dog interpreter.
As Bach and Sherlock use their teamwork to find out more about their mysterious client, Varley takes us on a tour of the history and geography of the human habitations of Luna. It's a fascinating world, a believable future for a few centuries hence. Varley doesn't trouble himself too much with providing a scientific explanation for the intricacies of life in the future. The storyline and characters keep Irontown Blues fun and unpredictable.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
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