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Strontium Dog novels #5
Strontium Dog 5: A Fistful of Strontium
Bounty hunter Johnny Alpha and his cast of companions chase an escaped felon across Miltonia, the only planet in the galaxy where mutants are the majority and humans are the mistrusted minority. Original.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 25, 2005
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 2, 2024
A worthy contender for 2nd best book on the series
Well written political thriller featuring the fan-fave pairing of Johnny Alpha and Middenface McNulty, the latter leaning fully into his old school, tortured, comic-strip-faithful Scottish 'accent'.
The Strontium Dogs are attracted by a massive payout to track down escaped convict Kit 'IdentiKit' Jones, the archetypal 'man of a thousand faces' with the ability to assume any mutant genetic identity. He's hidden in the mutant sanctuary planet of Miltonia, and this prosperous planet where mutants are the norm and norms are the tolerated minority plays backdrop to a thinly-veiled political analogy of extremism, bigotry, division, both-sidesism and ideology-driven binary populism which will be painfully familiar to readers in 2024.
The political satire is shaped by a clever 'twin opposites' storyline which leaves both our heroes and readers alike struggling to tell good guys from bad, and Johnny in particular is bothered by the split allegiances both past and present that dog his hunt and threaten to derail it entirely as echoes of his pivotal role in the Mutant Wars in Earth clash awaken his idealism and sense of justice, even as he struggles to tell which side he's on.
The ending might be predictable in a sense, but the interesting political subplot balances the bone-crunching violence to provide an intelligent as well as satisfying read.
Well written political thriller featuring the fan-fave pairing of Johnny Alpha and Middenface McNulty, the latter leaning fully into his old school, tortured, comic-strip-faithful Scottish 'accent'.
The Strontium Dogs are attracted by a massive payout to track down escaped convict Kit 'IdentiKit' Jones, the archetypal 'man of a thousand faces' with the ability to assume any mutant genetic identity. He's hidden in the mutant sanctuary planet of Miltonia, and this prosperous planet where mutants are the norm and norms are the tolerated minority plays backdrop to a thinly-veiled political analogy of extremism, bigotry, division, both-sidesism and ideology-driven binary populism which will be painfully familiar to readers in 2024.
The political satire is shaped by a clever 'twin opposites' storyline which leaves both our heroes and readers alike struggling to tell good guys from bad, and Johnny in particular is bothered by the split allegiances both past and present that dog his hunt and threaten to derail it entirely as echoes of his pivotal role in the Mutant Wars in Earth clash awaken his idealism and sense of justice, even as he struggles to tell which side he's on.
The ending might be predictable in a sense, but the interesting political subplot balances the bone-crunching violence to provide an intelligent as well as satisfying read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review