A Scammer Darkly

Rex Nihilo, Book 5

By: Robert Kroese

Narrated by: Anne Marie Lewis

Under arrest for crimes he hasn't yet committed, interstellar con man is given one chance to earn his freedom: he and his long-suffering robot sidekick Sasha must track down six fugitive androids who are determined to assassinate the Malarchian Primate!

©2024 Robert Kroese (P)2024 Robert Kroese

A fun homage to PKD

A Scammer Darkly is a fun romp through time and space. It's what you would get if Philip K Dick and Douglas Adams had a mind meld. The story is funny in its own right and Kroese uses humor and puns to poke fun at the genre as well as some of the absurdity of our culture. But for those who have read PKD's work (especially Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Minority Report,) or seen the PKD based movies, it's an even better story. I also think Lewis gives a strong performance as the narrator speaking from the perspective of Sasha.

Really

Not the same voices. Not even a good try.

Why not just start a different series with Sasha.

Ummm what even is this?

At first I was just really disappointed in the narration. It was obviously not either of the 2 good SASHAS (both JD Ledford and Kate Rudd did a great job) and I wanted to be forgiving but this was really bad. Like not even pronouncing characters names as they had been pronounced in the past several books plus a general lack of any kind of personality. Then I realized the story was also just bad. Like so much repetition and referencing past books in such an obvious but not charming way. It seems like this book was the obvious cash grab that had actually been referenced in a funny way in a previous book except it wasn’t funny. If you want a continuation of beloved Rex Nihilo adventures, this book isn’t it.

Plain Bad

Other people have already complained about the narration, but on top of that the story is entirely lacking in charm and guile. There comes a point when it's time to stop a series or accept that if you continue it's going to be a poor simulacrum - this book represents that point in this series. Sorry to have to break it to you but what was a great run has ended. Don't bother with this one, it'll just make you sad to see once beloved characters treated this way.