The Ultra Big Sleep by Patrick Swenson is a science fiction novel set in the not too distant future. Even though most things on Earth seem similar to our time, things on Crowell’s world have gone through a great reorganizing as the Earth is connected into a multi-planet Union.
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Fairwood
Released: 2016
Stars: 3.5 Stars
Reviewer: Michael D. Griffiths
Crowell is a private investigator and he and his side kick, a giant alien called a Helk. get contacted by a different race of alien with a case which turns out to involve Crowell’s missing father. The investigator soon discovers he has experienced a process which has robed him of some of his older memories. This has something to do with the RuBy drug trade and ‘Thin Men’ which are created by Ultras a race of dangerous aliens.
He soon gets involved with tense situations while trying to piece together various threads, which become more difficult with his missing memories. All the while, the Ultras are trying to use the drug trade as a method to work their way into the Union.
This book has its share of action and certainly mystery. However, I cannot say it grabbed me as much as some of the other books I have read lately. It might be the missing memory theme, because it does not excite me much. Also some of the ‘rules’ and how things worked on Helk did not make complete sense to me. I found myself just reading on and not trying to really understand what was taking place. I also think the same story could have been told with the use of less pages.
The other races were interesting, but I sometimes got confused which person was what. It felt like it was a mystery we were supposed to already know before it was explained.
Certain aspects of how the aliens differed from our human understanding and perspective were interesting. I did like the main characters and if you are interested in how different races would interact within an multi-planet drug cartel, this is a book you should check out.
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