Originally published in 2011 and 2012, Guy Haley’s SF detective adventure novels Reality 36 and Omega Point are back in print in a hefty new omnibus edition entitled Richards & Klein, both books revised, updated and combined into a single volume. Set in 2129 it sees freelance security consultants Richards (a Class Five AI) and Otto Klein (German ex-military cyborg) investigating the murder of Professor Zhang Qifang, a prominent activist for AI rights, whose death heralds a rising threat that’s felt across both the physical and digital worlds. People connected to Qifang are dying or disappearing, some of Richards’ fellow Class Fives are acting weird, and someone really doesn’t want Richards and Klein to find out what’s going on. As they dig beneath the surface, their investigation takes them across the Real, the digital space of the Grid, and even the virtual worlds of the Realities.
Set in a near-ish future in which the Earth has suffered through disasters, developed incredible technologies and adapted to new geopolitical realities, this starts off as a detective story and grows into a wild adventure, combining an essentially serious narrative with madcap action and lashings of wry humour (particularly from Richards). After introducing the main pair of protagonists via a couple of smart, pacy scenes that give the reader a good feel for both characters, the wide ranging plot kicks into gear and doesn’t let up, taking the characters across physical and digital borders (including, brilliantly, the Great Firewall of China) in pursuit of first answers and then survival. Richards and Klein themselves get the lion’s share of the plot, but they’re accompanied by quite a hefty supporting cast including Professor Qifang’s assistant Veronique Valdaire, several other AIs (of varying degrees of lucidity), some of Otto’s fellow soldiers and an investigator from the global agency tasked with policing the Realities.
With two novels worth of story there’s a lot going on here, the complex world building and combination of physical and digital settings allowing for all manner of interesting, thought-provoking, sometimes hilarious and other times heartbreaking discussions. Questions of whether someone’s digital simulation can really be human; painful memories of the horrors of war, loss, grief and guilt; explosive combat between cyborgs on a moving train; explorations of the crazy possibilities within the Realities (digital worlds first developed for gaming, but now closed off after their inhabitants were classed as sentient beings), there’s all of this and so much more. It’s occasionally a bit jarring as new characters and locations are introduced into the mix, and being picky it could have done with another proofreading pass to catch a few more missing articles and slightly jumbled sentences (presumably left over from the redrafting process) that prove a little distracting, but none of that should take away from the overall enjoyment and the excellent characters.
Individually, both of the main protagonists are engaging and cleverly depicted, Richards proving amusingly smug, sharp-tongued and often genuinely witty while Otto provides the emotional heart of the story (along with most of its action scenes), but it’s a shame that they spend so much of the book apart, as a little more time for their odd-couple contrast to shine through would have been welcome. Hopefully that might happen in future Richards & Klein stories – there’s certainly scope for more, as the characters are great and the world Haley has created here is richly textured, expansive and utterly believable. At times a bit more context would maybe have been helpful for certain concepts (although there’s a useful glossary at the back), but this world of AIs, consolidated nation states and virtual realities is never less than compelling, and makes for a fantastic backdrop to a story that’s pretty bonkers but a lot of fun.
Given that Reality 36 and Omega Point were two of Haley’s earliest novels, albeit updated and reworked for this new edition, if you’re familiar with his more recent writing you can sort of see where he’s become a more assured and confident writer since these were first published. There’s so much going on that it can be hard to process at times, but the relentless pace and effective balance between action, intrigue, humour and heart means that it’s consistently entertaining and ultimately a lot of fun. All told, the overarching story told across this book – and it really is one story, so the single volume makes a lot of sense – is bold, imaginative, full of ambition and ultimately satisfying, and as well as being a great read in its own right it gives a real sense of what Haley is capable of beyond the boundaries of his work for Black Library. Space Marines are cool and all, but on the basis of this there’s a lot more to come from Haley!
Many thanks to Guy Haley and Angry Robot for sending me an advance copy of Richards & Klein to read in exchange for my honest review.
For more information about Richards & Klein, check out this interview with Guy Haley.
See also: all of my other reviews and interviews with Guy Haley.
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