Strictly Analog

By: Richard Levesque

Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen

Fans of William Gibson, Jonathan Letham, and Richard K. Morgan will enjoy Strictly Analog by Richard Levesque.

What's a private detective to do in a future where nothing is private? That's Ted Lomax's problem. In the new California, a corporation runs the government, electric cars have drive tones, and a new technology keeps everyone constantly connected to the Internet. Almost everyone.

Disabled in California's war for independence, Ted is locked out of the new tech. Living on the fringes of society for years, he's found a way to turn his disability into cash: finding clients who need their info kept off the grid.

But when his daughter is accused of murdering her boyfriend - an agent in California's Secret Police - Ted has to dig himself out of the hole he's been in. To save his daughter, he ventures into a shadow world of underground hackers, high-end programmers, and renegade gear-heads, all of whom seem to have a stake in California's future.

It soon becomes clear it's about more than one dead agent. Solving the case might save his daughter. And it might get him killed. And it just might open the door to secrets surrounding the attack that almost killed him eighteen years before.

One thing's certain, though. Ted Lomax will never be the same.

©2012 Richard Levesque (P)2014 Richard Levesque

Critic reviews

"...Fast-paced futuristic thriller..." ( Publishers Weekly)

Strictly Analog

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this book.A good sci fi read.The storyline was interesting and the ending not as expected.The narrator,Jay Cohen ,did a fine job with the characters voice.

Interesting Story, Slow Narration

I enjoyed the story well enough but ended up setting the playback speed to 1.5x just to make listening to it bearable, otherwise it felt like it dragged on way too slowly.

Overall Great

Really just wow. I've had a difficult time finding books to hold my interest lately. This completely held my attention. I listened to it all in one day. I just couldn't walk away.

futuristic sci fi meets detective noir

This is a very solid and imaginative read. It's a love child of Raymond Chandler's noir hard-boiled detective story and the Philip K Dick or William Gibson cyberpunk/speculative science fiction genre. It has the best of both worlds, and yet doesn't feel contrived. It's post-apocalyptic in a way that fits the genre, playing on the scarcity of some resources in a world where people take their mind off the problems with prevalent and affordable technology that allows them to enjoy the virtual world. The author creates great concepts like the "eyes" (much like Google Glasses), which allow constant interaction with online information; electric cars can be programmed to make whatever drive tone you want them to, from cats purring to reggae; and "mixing" clubs that allow partiers to experience a drug-like synesthesia (tasting colors, feeling sounds). Enter Ted Lomax, a war veteran whose injuries exclude him from using technology, and so he does his private detective job the old-fashioned way: strictly analog, through research at the library, tailing suspects, and using his knowledge of human behavior. His daughter gets framed for murder and he has to figure out who the killer is to save her from exile from the city.

The mystery itself is good - complex, twisting, and revealed at a good pace. There's conflicts with bad cops, untrustworthy dames, and cocky tech-genius outlaws. There's lots of thrills and tension and danger, car chases, and some great seedy worldbuilding. The book is wonderfully atmospheric, gritty and still full of clever humor and insight into the human condition.

I got this audiobook free fromt he author in exchange for an honest review, and I loved it from start to finish. The narrator is good, but speaks a bit laconically for the story, so I sped it up to 1.25x speed. If you like noir, PIs, and speculative Science Fiction, check this out!

Interesting possible future

This book has interesting look at possible future technology and how it's used. Entertaining with a plausible storyline.

Fascinating Premise

Cyber-dystopia in future California. Excellent, understated narration, I listened to the whole book in one go.

Beauty is in the ‘eye’ of the beholder

Well this one certainly ticked all the boxes for me, when I read the summary I just knew I was going to love it and I definitely did. Many thanks to Steven @stevenjaycohen for the opportunity to listen and honestly review Richard’s awesome book. The storyline contained so many things I have thought about writing myself that it seemed as if Richard had access to my inner thoughts.

In the corporate controlled continent or North America after the border wars our hero, Ted Lomax is scratching out a living ‘off line’ for those who don’t want to be ‘seen.’ His disability keeps him from following the norm for which he is extremely grateful but when his only daughter is arrested for the murder of her secret police boyfriend Ted is plunged into the world of cutting edge technology in order to save her from the wastelands.

Richard treats us to an ever shifting, fast paced sci-fi thriller with enough fascinating twists and turns that the listener will want to stay confined to the orbit of their headphones long after they should be doing something much more important. His consummate ability to transport the reader/listener into his storyline along with splendid character development makes this a most compelling yarn.

The story is more than skilfully assisted by Stevens’s spectacular vocal performance which I enjoyed immensely. His measured and deliberate style provides the listener with every chance to easily recognise individual characters and the pace was just about perfect for my listening style. His use of varying accents, tones, mannerisms and timbres provided a full cast of characters for us to associate with.

Like other reviewers I was completely taken with some of the great concepts Richard had devised for our entertainment, the description and use both "eyes," which keep the wearer constantly on-line and the and the “eye” which takes it to another level left me seriously wondering whether our author isn’t privy to some current secret information.

As you can tell I enjoyed everything about this book, from Ted waking up in a storage complex with his neighbours rat, through the clandestine mysteries, the cleverly constructed relationships to the terrific tech it is all fantastic, I highly recommend this book and will be looking out for more from both the author and the narrator.

The narrator made an average sorry below average..

the narrator could not pace well and made the storytelling uneven. a better narrator could have spun magic into an otherwise average story.

Husband like this book.

What made the experience of listening to Strictly Analog the most enjoyable?

The fact that this took place in the future.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Strictly Analog?

When Ted Lomax woke up with tec in his head.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The narrator was bland.

Strictly analog

Staccato pacing and a soporific monotone voice makes it difficult to finish but the story is good and worth the credit despite the narrator. I'm hoping for a sequel (with a different narrator)