The short version: Brain Thief absolutely floored me. If you think you'd like a post-modern noir that's dark and funny, packed with quirky characters and hair-raising thrills, and has some near-future science fiction flavor, it's run-do-not-walk time. Bernal Hayden-Rumi works for a wealthy eccentric who funds oddball research projects, something is going identifiably wonky with one as the novel opens, and I encourage you to let the novel spring all its other surprises on you without my interfere...

This was a very uneven book, at least in my experience. The first 100 pages or so are rather confusing, I kept reading simply to see where it was going. Then it suddenly picked up for a while, but eventually went back again to some really choppy narration. Some people will probably enjoy the style, but it was honestly not my cup of tea.

Alexander Jablokov returns to science fiction with Brain Thief, his first novel in the genre after several years. This imaginative mystery comes complete with a cast of eccentrics who in some form or fashion antagonize Bernal Haydon-Rumi, the man at the center of this strange journey and struggle for answers. When Bernal returns to his wealthy employer's home after a business excursion, simplicity unravels, and he is left with a puzzle to solve that involves his boss, a woman who spends idle tim...

The storyline was so disjointed that I had trouble keeping up with what was happening. It jumps from one thing to something completely different in a way that does not make sense. This was as confusing as Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. That was confusing because of the language but this was confusing because of the order the information was presented in.

The mystery starts right away when Bernal is just coming home from a business trip stopping by to see his boss. He gets the feeling something's not right. You start to see, as well, something is askew. Chasing his boss as she runs away and steals a car to get away. What is going on? Muriel, Bernals boss, leaves hints and messages to help steer him on the right path to help him with the mystery of Hesketh. Hesketh is an artificial intelligence that is on a sample run through the hillsides before

A Sci-fi murder mystery with elements of hard science and soft bodies. A serial killer is on the loose, but are they acting on human emotion or cold mechanical logic? Bernal Hayden-Rumi (half-Japanese geek love) is out to solve the issue, meeting a cast of mainly ladies who mostly aide him on his way.The book was alright, it had some humorous moments and some interesting thoughts, but wasn't something I'd rave about. I might mention this book to non-serious sci-fi readers or mystery readers, but...

I learned about Brain Thief by Alexander Jablokov in an issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I tend to add books mentioned in author introductions to my wishlist.The book begins with the disappearance of a funder of odd ball scientific projects. This happens after she knocks out her executive assistant and steals a car. So Bernal decides he should find her himself as no one else understands her as well as he does.As Bernal does all the narration, the book's scope is limited to what he is able t...

Brain Thief by Alexander Jablokov is about a man named Bernal, who has a strong relationship with his employer Muriel Inglis. They both work (although more Muriel than Bernal) in the business of AI ten years in the future. When Bernal notices that Muriel had been acting strange he tries desperately to follow her strangely cryptic clues and in doing so is forced to undergo an even stranger mission of figuring out the secrets to the mysterious AI “Hesketh” and a network of serial killers taking he...

I am wavering between two and three stars. The story was a fast paced sci-fi mystery with an moderatly enjoyable plot. However I found Jablokov's writing style to be overworked. The novel seemed like it was 75% dialogue, 15% narrative, and 10% stage directions. The novel was packed with eccentric characters delivering quirky dialogue. The chapters were mostly compiled of short scenes where Bernal meets up with a chatty secondary character, they have a conversation, maybe someone gets hit or chas...

I read the first 100 or so pages, and have no idea what this book is about. And I'm not alone; apparently the story line heavily involves assorted people randomly meeting to say they also have no idea what is happening. A plot would have been helpful.

This was an odd book - essentially a mystery/chase story with some science fictional/horror elements thrown in to make it more interesting. The main character is summoned by his employer, an entrepreneur who has been investing in a research project for a robotic vehicle for exploring other worlds. He gets to her house and finds her gone, and chases her next door, and the madcap story takes off from there. His characters were quirky and fun, although I found the story line hard to follow from tim...

This is one of those books that was completely a cover buy, and one that sat on my shelf for years. Unfortunately this wasn't one of those books that you finally get around to reading and you're like 'oh man, I can't believe I waited this long'. While the opening few chapters were engaging and really got me intrigued, the rest of the book was downhill from there. My biggest gripe with this book, and it might just be a personal thing, but a lot of the science side and the science jargon went comp...

Alexander Jablokov Brain ThiefBernal Hayden Rumi works for an eccentric millionaire. He troubleshoots projects like an attempt to reseed the great plains of the United States with mammoths. One day his employer disappears and he ends up on a chase through wild and strange circumstances. The author is quite original in his approach and his subjects. This novel is the landscape of fringe science, stolen crogenically frozen heads, black market scientific equipment, planetary exploration robots, and...

I've liked previous Jablokov, but this was a bit of a slog, especially in the middle. I put it down for a while, then jumped forward, and had trouble remembering the quirky characters he was meeting. Most of the sfnal stuff is happening off screen; the mystery and unusual characterizations hold center stage. There's an AI running around, and a serial killer, and a poor schlub who is trying to find out what the heck is going on. We'll see how much I remember over the next year. It was cool to hav...

I’m not exactly sure why Alexander Jablokov decided “Brain Thief” (SciFi, $24.99, 382 pages) needed to be categorized as science fiction, because it’s basically an action thriller that didn’t need any of the marginally advanced science to make the intricate plot keep rolling.And plot is what “Brain Thief” is all about. It’s one of those books in which the protagonist, just an ordinary fellow, is tossed into a confusing situation that he really doesn’t belong in. In this case, Bernal Haydon-Rumi

Another Kaspar the Friendly Co-worker find, I would have put this off longer and maybe it would sit on the shelf counting dust motes but I was craving a mystery book. This being the closest relation and having just re-read yet another Connelly, I picked it up while I am couch-bound due to a sprained ankle.Like most of the genre works being produced these days, it is far too long. Still, this is an enjoyable, slightly science fiction take on the noir-style mystery. He tries too hard to create qui...

This is a decent book, but it was vaguely unsatisfying while reading it. Nothing that made me want to toss the book aside, but there was something about the evolution of the plot and characters that just felt, if not wrong, then incomplete.It's an action-mystery plot thrown under the science fiction umbrella because of the premise. No that the basis of the science is that far out, after all we do have "corpsicles" today. (Who can forget the scandalous treatment of Ted William's remains.)I was am...

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)At first glance, the "trippy" "cyberpunk" novel Brain Thief by Alexander Jablokov looks like something that'd be right up my alley, to the point that it's one of the few titles I've ever bothered to put on reserve at my local library, instead of my usual habit of choosing books based on whatever random ti...

Brain Thief is just a little too random for my taste. It's a near-future humorous thriller with science fiction elements, where every other character waxes on about philosophy and/or conspiracy. It simply doesn't work very well. The humor never exceeds light chuckles and often falls flat. The characters are, for the most part, really not that interesting, including the main character who has the least color of anyone in the story. The beginning of the book is overly confusing and jumps around as...

I enjoyed this book, but man! It was a weird one. I think that's what kept me reading, actually. I was never sure what the next page would have in store for me. AI with multiple personalities, a philosophizing waiter at a diner that draws customers to return despite the food, a drug dealer called the Easter Bunny chumming the water with free drugs, and the troubles of building the perfect beheading device. All of that is in there, but that doesn't even scratch the surface. It's weird, all right,...