Magnum Thrax and the Amusement Park of Doom

Comic Sci-Fi Is So Hard -- This Is A Worthy Contender

This book is much, much better than the blurbs and the cover might lead you to believe.

With the reference to Pleasurepit Five and the combat sexbots, the impression is that this is going to be a sci-fi Dean Martin/Matt Helm action sex comedy. Well, it is a little. But, and this is a big "but", only a little, because the author has some fun with the idea of sexbots being repurposed as soldiers, and then once we've done some leering and oogling and a few jokes, he lets that go and moves on to a much better book.

The story is that the few remaining civilized outposts on Earth are threatened by an attacking rogue amusement park, (think Disney by way of The Borg). An android delivers a weapon to Pleasurepit Five and our hero, Magnum Thrax, is the only one who can travel across the Death Zone to enlist the technowitches into the fight against this evil. So, what you really get is a sort of Mad Max, Lord of the Rings, Dirty Dozen, high tech mashup.

But here's the really good part -- the post apocalyptic world is beautifully conceived, the techno/nano/quantum gobbledygook is wildly inventive, the characters are inspired, and the narrative and dialogue are unrelievedly funny.

First off, there is a cool creature or sci-fi wrinkle or social alt-world angle on every page. This is a post-apocalyptic world after all, and the how and the why, and the consequences, of the apocalypse lend themselves to a lot of edgy and sly throwaway humor about how things used to be.

Next, the author never met a nano-thingy he didn't love. The whole plot could be jettisoned and it would just be fun to explore the goofy or lame or fascinating or silly tech that's on display here. There is one of every kind of android, robot, sexbot, weapon, communicator, advanced power source, photon thing, quantum whatzzit, etc. that you could possibly come up with.

Third, the characters are very well done. Thrax is a bit full of himself, of course, but he's a decent hero. The sexbots get to have personalities. The villain is a hoot, ("so needy!"). And the list goes on. Many incidental characters are written with great care, which gives the story more weight than just a funny space opera. There are at least two engaging AI's, and even some of the hardware gets decent lines.

Finally, and best, the tale is consistently funny. Very little of the humor is in your face, and none of it is heavy-handed or stoopid. There are lots of dry throwaway lines, deadpan observations, and wry or edgy musings. The narrative is funny, but actually fairly subtle. There is a lot of cross-talk and snappy dialogue, especially between Thrax and his techno-nerd best friend. It's smart and clever stuff.

So, I thought this would be a sort of disposable one-note joke kind of entertainment. Turns out that it was both a decent sci-fi adventure and a funny buddy-style thriller with a crunchy dystopian coating. Who knew?

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Magnum Thrax makes for a lovable hero! Loved the fantastic imagery and interesting twists in this Sci Fi adventure tale. I found myself taken in by the wild characters and thoroughly enjoying the AI characters. An entertaining story, well written, that kept me reading til the end.

Ridiculous but crazy-fun, you probably won't find another book like this unless Bathurst writes another one. With true-to-the-word imagery of memes and concepts you'd expect to find in a Terry Pratchett novel, Magnum Thrax and the Amusement Park of Doom has kept me glued to the pages.

Part satire and part noir with comedy, this book is different. The humor makes it. If it were a movie, it would be one of those "B" movies that I love watching from time to time.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free will.

I really really hope there is a second book in this series. Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this.

2.5 stars
First off, the cover is amazing. I actually thought this was a comic book at first, I really love it. It's not a bad book. I appreciate the effort that went into the world building but I felt it was over-written and it was far too long for me. I bumped this up to a 3 star purely for Candy, she was easily my favourite character. I loved the androids in general and the dynamic they brought to the story. I also loved that they were all programmed differently and had their own personalities and traits. Thrax - well, what can I say? If you're not a fan of reading about flawlessly perfect man hunks that literally every single girl (or bot) swoons over and are dying to undress.. then this one won't be for you.

Once they finally made it to the monastery, it became clear that the plot definitely wasn't headed in the direction I was wanting and I lost interest. I found myself skimming the remainder of the book, only looking out for the few scenes that featured Candy as she was the only character that I cared enough about to find out what happened to her. I didn't like any of the new characters that were introduced or the magic system. That came out of left field for me, I wasn't expecting sorcery to all of a sudden appear in a book that had spent more than 250 pages with strictly guns and other tech weaponry. I also missed the amusement park aspect. That was one of the things that originally drew me to the book and I was disappointed that there wasn't an actual park at all.

With this type of tongue in cheek book, that is made up entirely of loveless sex and repetitive action scenes, I really needed to have some kind of connection with the characters and/or world to stay committed. Unfortunately, I didn't feel I really got to experience either of those things, so this book wasn't the best fit for me personally. This would be a good read for anyone who likes futuristic tech, constant sexiness, and is looking for non-stop action.

Too long... honestly, I would have loved this book if it was shorter.
Pretty well written, funny as hell, just too much to slog through. Would like a sequel or something, this exact book just didn't do it for me. You may like it, and there is so much potential with the great characters and world building.

With a premise like this one -- a book rendition of an over-the-top noir comic book type of story, very tongue in cheek and extra by design -- I think the enjoyment factor hugely depends on whether chosen the style works for the reader. The book is all of these things: as extra as you want, running a mile a minute, throwing together technobabble with action movie tropes and stylized violence of comic books, a constant circus of androids, explosions, tentacles, and an army of sexbots taking them in any combination thereof. Maybe in a different mood, I could be amused and entertained by the same frenetic things, but the protagonist and the ensuing narration style I just didn't find charming. Perhaps if the same story was narrated by one of the bots, I'd have enjoyed it more.