The Blue-Haired Bombshell was handed to me by a friend of mine, who remembered when I used to dye my hair blue. I could immediately tell that the book came from the sci-fi section, but was somewhat hesitant about reading it. I mean, it just about screamed out “cheesy”.
Once I opened the book, I realized that it had way more potential than I’d first guessed. Here we have a really silly and fun book, that combines classic sci-fi concepts with both sarcastic and goofy humor.
It had me interested at the first scene, where the main characters are attacked by plants (and the plants look to be winning). As a highly allergic person, I find myself “attacked by plants” all the time! This was the book for me, after all.
I get the feeling that this book might be part of a series, but, I had no trouble following along despite never having read whatever other books it is connected to. The main character is Zachary Nixon Johnson, who mostly goes by “Zach”. He’s a private detective, and the last freelance PI working on Earth. And so, he gets some rather strange cases.
This time, Zach is trying to figure out who killed off three of the World Council Members. It seems the suspects are from the Moon. It sounds less odd when you realize that in this book, the Moon had been colonized years ago. Moon people feel much animosity towards Earth.
The politics here are interesting, without becoming so complex as to become tedious. The Moon is tired of receiving all of the Earth’s garbage. Literally!
The Council Members are voted in, and, as a result, are often popular celebrities. (One of these characters reminds me of Brittany Spears). People on both planets are constantly connected to something like the internet on crack by little devices they wear, called PIHI-pods, and news travels at the speed of wireless data. It’s an interesting world to visit as a reader.
Zach heads to the Moon, armed with a sentient gun, GUS (that just wants to please him) and a holographic assistant, HARV (who is sarcastic, and often acts like he is Zach’s mom). Both of these wonders of technology are provided to Zach by his friend, Dr. Randy, whose lab and ideas are better than anything seen in a James Bond movie.
Zach also brings along his niece, Carol, who is one of the most powerful psychics on earth. But on the Moon, there are tons of women (all with blue hair) who are even more powerful than Carol is. Most of these Moon women are either related to, or are the wives of, the most powerful diplomat on the planet.
I found it interesting that in this sci-fi book that reads something like a “pulp” mystery. I wasn’t expecting, in a book with the word “Bombshell” in the title, that all the women in the book turn out to be super strong, independent, and powerful characters. There are even appearances by a few deities, all of whom are female.
Armed to the teeth, Zach and company go to the Moon, to do some investigating. Trouble and hijinks ensue.
There are plenty of “geek” inside jokes in this book as well. They substitute a real world swear word with the word “DOS”. It made me giggle every time I read it. There are gorillas working on the Moon, which brings to mind “Planet of the Apes” in some ways. The list goes on. This is a book to just have fun with. Sci-Fi geeks who enjoy the humor of Douglas Adams will enjoy Zakour’s writing.
This book review of The Blue-Haired Bombshell – by John Zakour is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites.
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