Subject: Review: Inferno, by Roger MacBride-Allen

From: Warren Dunn <[email-masked]>
Date: 17 Dec 1999 15:55:48 -0500

Inferno, by Roger MacBride-Allen
	Review Copyright 1999 by Warren Dunn

When the Governor of Inferno is murdered, Sheriff Kresh sorts through
Spacers, Settlers and a Lawless robot as suspects.

SOME SPOILERS BELOW.

This one started out so much better than Caliban.  I loved it all the way
through, until the last few pages.  I had to read Kresh's solution to the
murder three times, and go back over some of the testimonies, and still I
didn't get it.  How to spoil a book!

  The book actually takes half its length before the murder takes place.
It is a very organized event.  The Governor is having a party, and just
about everyone who might want to murder him is there.  A brawl takes
place, during which a stranger walks in.  That mobilizes some tampered
robots, who can be conveniently deactivated when the stranger wants to
commit the murder.

  Kresh is on duty, because he wants to protect the governor.  However,
the party took place on the Governor's residence on the island of
Purgatory, which is owned by the Settlers, who are starting the
terraforming project, and is protected by their police force.  But the
residence is technically a Spacer place, protected by the Governor's
Rangers.

  Kresh suspects everybody.  But nobody seems capable of committing the
murder, or orchestrating such an elaborate plan.

  The investigation is very intense, and moves quickly from one thing to
the next.  Clues pile up, but Kresh doesn't know what to make of them.
Then there's Donald, the Sheriff's robot.  He hates Caliban so much
(because he IS capable of killing a human) that he's convinced Caliban is
the murderer, which biases the investigation further.

  It is so exciting, that I had trouble putting the book down at any time.
So when I was nearing the end, and we knew that Kresh had solved the case,
I was very interested to know myself, because I had no clue whatsoever.

  Unfortunately, I still have no clue.  Things got so complicated during
the exposition that I got lost, and had to reread the entire chapter
twice.  Finally, after sifting through interviews and pages of clues, I
gave up.  Quite disappointing for such an amazing book -for all but the
last ten pages.  Then it ended way too quickly.

  On another note, I think it's wise that they get rid of the New Law
Robots.  The laws are so vague, that, like Prospero, their "leader", they
can be interpreted to mean anything.  If it is only a matrix that has to
be imbedded with the new laws, then someone can essentially make a no law
robot like Caliban, and create an underground, illegal, robotic army.  I'm
surprised that nobody has thought of that, now that the gravitonic brains
seem to be on the market.

%A MacBride-Allen, Roger
%T Inferno
%S Isaac Asimov's Robots
%V Book 2
%I ACE Science Fiction
%D 1994
%G ISBN 0-441-00023-1
%P 226 pp.
%O Hardcover, US$15.99