The Retrieval Artist
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
WMG Publishing
Paperback $12.99 Powell’s
Ebook $3.99 Kindle Kobo Nook

Over the decade and a half (roughly) Kristine Kathryn Rusch has been building what has come to be known as The Retrieval Artist Universe, a set of novels and shorter works set in a common universe.  The Retrieval Artist is the first of these and was originally published in Analog.  I know because I remember reading it in the hotel the weekend one of my brothers got married.  (Don’t ask me how I remember this; I don’t know.  I just do.)

For the past year, Ms. Rusch has been writing a five novel sequence set in the Retrieval Artist Universe called Anniversary Day.  The first two are out, and the remaining three will be published in January, February, and March.  ARCs for these three arrived in my mail box the Friday before Christmas.  I’m going to read through the whole series, alternating reviews between here and Amazing Stories.

But I decided to go back and refresh my memory of the inaugural story in the series and post a review as an entry point for those of you who haven’t read any of the books yet.

Humanity has made contact with a number of different alien races.  As you would expect, each one has its own set of beliefs and laws, which sometimes are pretty different from those of humans.  By treaty, if you break a law while in alien territory, they can hunt you down and inflict whatever punishment their laws allow, even if the infraction was unintended and no big deal in human terms.

This has led to the formation of a number of services which will help those hunted by the aliens disappear.  Miles Flint is a retrieval artist, someone who hunts down the Disappeared, for a fee, of course.  Miles is just about the best retrieval artist there is, and consequently his fees are pretty steep.  He only works when he wants to.  He has a shabby office in a run-down sector of a dome on the Moon; you have to want to hire him since he only meets prospective clients in person.

One day Miles is visited by young woman who is the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the solar system.  He’s the head of a major corporation, and he’s dying.  She wants Miles to find her mother, who disappeared just after she was born.

Yes, is there a question in the back?…Of course she’s not telling him everything.  They never do.  Miles is perfectly aware of this.  No, I’m not going to tell you what she’s hiding.  She’s got multiple secrets, that’s all you need to know.  There are plenty of twists in The Retrieval Artist, and I don’t want to give anything away.

Where was I?  Oh, yes.  Miles is very much the classic hardboiled PI.  There have been a number of attempts to blend the PI with either science fiction or fantasy over the years.  I started to say the science fiction ones were on the whole more successful than the fantasy attempts, but that’s probably a reflection of my personal taste.

What’s pretty obvious is that the Retrieval Artist Universe is one of the more successful blendings of science fiction and the private investigator.  Rusch wouldn’t have kept the series going if there weren’t demand for these stories from readers.  She is, after all, a professional.  This series blends alien societies, hardboiled detection, and strong characters.  I loved The Retrieval Artist as much when I reread it as I did the first time all those years ago.

Like I said, I’m going to review the whole Anniversary Day sequence from the beginning, alternating between here and Amazing Stories, with the odd numbered novels reviewed at Amazing Stories and the even ones here at Futures Past and Present.  Then I’ll probably go back and work my way through the books I’ve not read yet.  It’s part of that reading more for pleasure thing I mentioned yesterday.

If you like mysteries with depth and alien societies with a hardboiled narration, give this one a try.