Duplicate Effort

A Retrieval Artist Novel

By: Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

Retrieval Artist Miles Flint is on a personal mission - to bring down the corrupt law firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xender. Then a journalist working with him is murdered, and Miles may be next. But before he can begin to investigate, he has a more personal crisis to deal with - his daughter Talia is missing.

Talia - one of six clones of Miles' long-dead child - has gone off to find the other five. As Miles pursues her, he begins to fear that her search for her "sisters" and his for the killer are on a collision course...

©2009 Kristine Kathryn Rusch (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Top 10 Greatest Science Fiction Detective Novels of all Time." (io9.com)

"Some of the best science fiction ever written." (Orson Scott Card)

Different from Other Retrieval Artist Novels

This is another exciting novel in the Retrieval Artist series, and I was definite in my 5-star rating. This novel is, however, quite different from the others. First, this one reads much more like a typical detective/thriller novel than a sci-fi novel. Advanced technology definitely plays a role, but I did enjoy Rusch's characterization of alien races in the other books. That is absent in this one. Of course, that this book is even more character-driven than the others can certainly not be considered a fault. But there are no aliens, and Miles does not take a single case as a Retrieval Artist; in fact the concept of the retrieval artist is almost absent from this book.

This book focuses entirely on Miles and Talia and WSX. You really need to have read Recovery Man to have any idea of what is going on in this book. I'd even recommend that you make sure you've read Paloma as well. This is almost just a continuation of the previous book. At the end of the 6th novel, it was clear that some loose ends would have to be tied up, and this novel does that-- and very well.

Jay Snyder again does a fantastic job of characterizing the voices and creating just the right mood for each scene. I started out reading these books to myself, but after I heard Snyder read one, I have only wanted the Audiobook version. His narration heightens the excitement in this already very exciting book.

My only concern is that the ending left me wondering if Rusch is planning on this being the last book in the Retrieval Artist series. I certainly hope not!

Very Good

As has been the case with the past books this is still a pretty great story. I would say on the plus side the story moves very quickly even compared to past books. Flint's daughter continues to develops as a character and the rest of the returning cast stays interesting. More and more Nyquist seems to take a bigger and bigger focus, which seems to work.

On the negative side, and the reason I cut a star is the dramatic turn of events for two pivital characters. Both seem to be wasted particularly in regards to their development from previous books.

The narrator continues to perform excellently. I am listening to him right now in another story and am amazed at how it is a completely unique performance. He really adds to the entertainment value of the book.

Overall a great and enjoyable story, if you liked the others you will like this one as much or more.

Dissenting opinion

"I have listened to one Retrieval Artist book previously and enjoyed it. I found this one to be tedious and often confusing. That may be because I had not read the books immediately preceding it as recommended by another reviewer, but even if I had, I think I would have found the plodding pace, the long passages of explanation and the diffuse focus troubling.

"In the end, I simply did not care about the simplistic characters or the convoluted plot, and the theme dealing with the relative value of a cloned offspring was not compelling. The conclusion was abrupt, unexciting and did not satisfy since the principal downfall affected a character we had never previously met.

"Most mystifying to me are the rave reviews for the reader. I found his hyper-enunciation and self-consciously sculpted inflections almost as annoying as the cloying and forced voices he used for female characters. Unlike many reviewers, this is not an issue which often bothers me, but in this case it was like feedback on a mic.

"Sorry, but I could not recommend this recording to anyone, especially if they had not read the previous books in the series."

4 stars is misleading, 3.5 should be it

These are detective stories in space. No great strain on the brain matter and some gaping holes in the plot. I felt that I made a mistake buying the entire set after the first one thinking that the author was going to build on that story. She didn't really, The characters continue on with a series of detective stories that are not especially thrilling. I listened to them all and cannot say that I was inspired, but I enjoyed them for what they were, fairly bland. I wish we had 1/2 stars, these books only deserve three and half, the four is misleading but three would have been too low.

Oops! Sifi not my cup of tea but

it was not a bad story and fairly interesting. Surprised me that I enjoyed it, felt okay to finish completely.

Ms. Rusch I'm sorry you couln't write this story!

This just reminds me of David Letterman's now famous snarl. Having read all the previous Retrieval Artist series I have to say this one is a huge disappointment.

The story progresses very slowly but thencomes to a close suddenly and abruptly. The logic behind why the villain in the story is causing all the trouble and how he is allowed to do it for so long, makes absolutely no sense in my mind. As a result the writer has put long sections just to try to somewhat desperately convince the reader there is some logic behind why the guys are acting this way or that. If it really made sense there was no need to put in so much to describe the reasoning behind the character's actions.

The story just doesn't click.

The only plus side is the narrator doing an A job on an F- story.