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Debatable Space
Version 43
The Exodus Universe.
Your odds of surviving quantum teleportation are, more or less, fifty/fifty. The only ones crazy enough to try it are the desperate, the insane, and those sentenced to exile for their crimes.
Belladonna is home to the survivors of the fifty/fifty -- and is therefore a planet run by criminals and thieves. But when a horrific and improbable murder catches the attention of the Galactic Police force, one cyborg cop -- Version 43 -- is sent to investigate.
Version 43 has been here before and has old friends and older enemies lying in wait. The cop was human once, but now, he is more program than man and will find a way to clean up this planet once and for all.
Your odds of surviving quantum teleportation are, more or less, fifty/fifty. The only ones crazy enough to try it are the desperate, the insane, and those sentenced to exile for their crimes.
Belladonna is home to the survivors of the fifty/fifty -- and is therefore a planet run by criminals and thieves. But when a horrific and improbable murder catches the attention of the Galactic Police force, one cyborg cop -- Version 43 -- is sent to investigate.
Version 43 has been here before and has old friends and older enemies lying in wait. The cop was human once, but now, he is more program than man and will find a way to clean up this planet once and for all.
529 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2010
19 people are currently reading
366 people want to read
About the author
Philip Palmer
48 books55 followersI started writing when I was 14 and wrote a short story for the school magazine about a bank robber who is killed during a heist and goes to Heaven - can't get through the Pearly Gates, and has to break in. Nicely synthesising all the genres I still love to mash up...!
I wrote five 'widescreen' high-octane high concept SF novels for Orbit Books, including DEBATABLE SPACE and VERSION 43 - blending satire with action with lashings of dark humour.
Now I am writing for film and television as well as writing prose. My recent books include MORPHO, published by NewCon Press and HELL ON EARTH, a fantasy epic about demons and cops.
My most recent book is THE GREAT WEST WOOD, a fantasy set in the fictional suburb of Westood - an urban village which is full of magic . There's crime, there's murder, and there's even a floating boy - because in Westwood, anything is possible...
I wrote five 'widescreen' high-octane high concept SF novels for Orbit Books, including DEBATABLE SPACE and VERSION 43 - blending satire with action with lashings of dark humour.
Now I am writing for film and television as well as writing prose. My recent books include MORPHO, published by NewCon Press and HELL ON EARTH, a fantasy epic about demons and cops.
My most recent book is THE GREAT WEST WOOD, a fantasy set in the fictional suburb of Westood - an urban village which is full of magic . There's crime, there's murder, and there's even a floating boy - because in Westwood, anything is possible...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
March 24, 2024
for something so brutal, this was a surprisingly fun, quirky experience. galactic investigator Version 43 returns to the outlaw planet of Belladonna, great name, and it's a society run by various crime lords, each uniquely interesting and horrible. Version 43 is murdered. soon after, Version 44 returns... and so on. we meet a number of versions of this cyborg cop, each iteration just a little less human, a little less empathetic, a little more coldly logical, a little more able to figure out the slaughter-mystery that he had originally been sent to solve. the case turns out to be political in nature, and so each layer of the mystery leads to even more corruption, more mysteries. the detective himself is a mystery, to the reader and to his various versions. alongside the main narrative is a parallel plot about a hybrid hive species set on eradicating humanity from the universe. of course these plots converge, as everything that rises must.
despite this book being wall-to-wall atrocities (mass murder and torture, rape and mutilation, suicide and the sex trade, genocide), the tone & pacing was... light & zippy? cheerful & breezy? upbeat & lively? it was like I was reading a science fiction version of Joe Abercrombie, minus the vicious nihilism at the core. Philip Palmer is a much sunnier author, in his dark and bloody way. that really shows up in SPOILER RED ALERT SPOILER FOLLOWS IN THIS PARAGRAPH RED ALERT SPOILER the rather corny, life-affirming ending. a very sweet and cheesy wrap-up that I completely forgave. I mean, so many horrifying bloodbaths came before, it was nice to end it all with an ice cream cone with extra sprinkles.
this is the second book I've read in the Debatable Space series of standalone novels. the first was the equally horrific yet compulsively readable Red Claw - highly recommended.
despite this book being wall-to-wall atrocities (mass murder and torture, rape and mutilation, suicide and the sex trade, genocide), the tone & pacing was... light & zippy? cheerful & breezy? upbeat & lively? it was like I was reading a science fiction version of Joe Abercrombie, minus the vicious nihilism at the core. Philip Palmer is a much sunnier author, in his dark and bloody way. that really shows up in SPOILER RED ALERT SPOILER FOLLOWS IN THIS PARAGRAPH RED ALERT SPOILER the rather corny, life-affirming ending. a very sweet and cheesy wrap-up that I completely forgave. I mean, so many horrifying bloodbaths came before, it was nice to end it all with an ice cream cone with extra sprinkles.
this is the second book I've read in the Debatable Space series of standalone novels. the first was the equally horrific yet compulsively readable Red Claw - highly recommended.
July 14, 2012
I really can't disagree with the criticism I read of Philip Palmer's work, but I don't want to repeat it. I still love it. I ate Version 43 up -- it's the kind of book that I can sink into and look up from half an hour later, believing it's been just a minute since I last responded to my IMs and so on.
Philip Palmer certainly doesn't get stuck in a rut with his narrators. Characters like Lena and Artemis are visible here, but Version 43 is something else, and so are the Hive-Rats. There's more hijinks with the formatting -- I wonder how this one displays on an ereader; I'm a little worried about my digital copies of Red Claw and Hell Ship -- but not as irritating as in Debatable Space, and there are no footnotes. The constant evolution and re-evolution of the main character is interesting too, in effect giving us many different narrators.
The appendices were unnecessary, in my view, but then I'm not one for the science stuff and I have an awful habit of skipping poetry, even in Tolkien.
Philip Palmer certainly doesn't get stuck in a rut with his narrators. Characters like Lena and Artemis are visible here, but Version 43 is something else, and so are the Hive-Rats. There's more hijinks with the formatting -- I wonder how this one displays on an ereader; I'm a little worried about my digital copies of Red Claw and Hell Ship -- but not as irritating as in Debatable Space, and there are no footnotes. The constant evolution and re-evolution of the main character is interesting too, in effect giving us many different narrators.
The appendices were unnecessary, in my view, but then I'm not one for the science stuff and I have an awful habit of skipping poetry, even in Tolkien.
August 28, 2011
Totally and utterly batshit. A strange mix of Detective Story, high concept Sci-fi and spiritual journey. Well worth a go if you want a modern day, less prudish, blue, Philip K Dick.
September 21, 2011
This enjoyed this book immensely. Don't have time for a full review (as usual), but here are some 'review notes'.
-This book is filled with a hyperbolic amount of sex, drugs, violence, and death. If this kind of stuff bothers you, I heartily recommend not reading this book. Or even leaving it in a room with small children. However, I should point out that all this material is presented in such an Over-The-Top (OTT) fashion that I don't think it's gratuitous. Some authors might present such material in elaborate detail and with profound seriousness. This is appealing if you are a 12-year old boy or an adult with developmental problems. Palmer presents it as All! Totally! Awesome!--that is, as a joke. Of course, you may not find it funny, but I think the difference of intent matters here. As always, context is key.
-The prose is a little stiff. I don't know if this is typical of Palmer's work, or specific to this novel (since I've only read the one). Regardless, there are two elements that make it work anyway: 1) the narrator is a cyborg who is frequently characterized as being cold and robotic (so it's consistent, at least) and 2) Palmer has great comedic timing (or pacing) which makes the stiffness of the prose work as a kind of deadpan delivery, making an already funny book even funnier.
-The (I think deliberately) cheesy hyperbole of the violence etc. conceals a lot of clever bits. For me personally, my favorite bits were the academic satire of the 'Principles of Quantum Teleportation' section and a throwaway joke from page 407 where Palmer refers to 'husserls of consciousness'-where a 'husserl' is a unit of measurement of consciousness. That's hysterically funny 1) if you ever studied phenomenology or 2) appreciate the sort of 'authorial personality' that would drop an obscure-for-almost-everybody philosophy joke into a book superficially about an intergalactic police robot, just because. There's lots of physics jokes too, and I'm sure there's more I missed.
-Palmer uses a lot of interesting stylistic devices that would be, by themselves, worth the price of admission. I already mentioned the fake academic article (which I think is a Borges reference). There's also sections of the book written as a flowchart, another as song lyrics. In one passage, he seems to invent a kind of Dadaist rap. The book is also full of dramatic irony. In short, Palmer presents his ostensibly silly material ('Galactic Cop Fights Crime!') in numerous complex and interesting ways. The contrast creates a neat sort of 'stylistic irony', where the content is opposed to the form. Imagine if someone wrote, say, a profound theological argument into a series of dirty limericks, and you'd have some idea of the kind of stylistic contrasts that Palmer is working with. If you've got a strong stomach, then working it all out with him is both interesting and fun--a combination that is, in my experience, exceedingly rare.
-Recommended if you like Philip K. Dick or Rudy Rucker.
-This book is filled with a hyperbolic amount of sex, drugs, violence, and death. If this kind of stuff bothers you, I heartily recommend not reading this book. Or even leaving it in a room with small children. However, I should point out that all this material is presented in such an Over-The-Top (OTT) fashion that I don't think it's gratuitous. Some authors might present such material in elaborate detail and with profound seriousness. This is appealing if you are a 12-year old boy or an adult with developmental problems. Palmer presents it as All! Totally! Awesome!--that is, as a joke. Of course, you may not find it funny, but I think the difference of intent matters here. As always, context is key.
-The prose is a little stiff. I don't know if this is typical of Palmer's work, or specific to this novel (since I've only read the one). Regardless, there are two elements that make it work anyway: 1) the narrator is a cyborg who is frequently characterized as being cold and robotic (so it's consistent, at least) and 2) Palmer has great comedic timing (or pacing) which makes the stiffness of the prose work as a kind of deadpan delivery, making an already funny book even funnier.
-The (I think deliberately) cheesy hyperbole of the violence etc. conceals a lot of clever bits. For me personally, my favorite bits were the academic satire of the 'Principles of Quantum Teleportation' section and a throwaway joke from page 407 where Palmer refers to 'husserls of consciousness'-where a 'husserl' is a unit of measurement of consciousness. That's hysterically funny 1) if you ever studied phenomenology or 2) appreciate the sort of 'authorial personality' that would drop an obscure-for-almost-everybody philosophy joke into a book superficially about an intergalactic police robot, just because. There's lots of physics jokes too, and I'm sure there's more I missed.
-Palmer uses a lot of interesting stylistic devices that would be, by themselves, worth the price of admission. I already mentioned the fake academic article (which I think is a Borges reference). There's also sections of the book written as a flowchart, another as song lyrics. In one passage, he seems to invent a kind of Dadaist rap. The book is also full of dramatic irony. In short, Palmer presents his ostensibly silly material ('Galactic Cop Fights Crime!') in numerous complex and interesting ways. The contrast creates a neat sort of 'stylistic irony', where the content is opposed to the form. Imagine if someone wrote, say, a profound theological argument into a series of dirty limericks, and you'd have some idea of the kind of stylistic contrasts that Palmer is working with. If you've got a strong stomach, then working it all out with him is both interesting and fun--a combination that is, in my experience, exceedingly rare.
-Recommended if you like Philip K. Dick or Rudy Rucker.
July 26, 2025
The science-fiction novel 'Version 43', while awash with pure technological novelty, is also thoroughly drowned under humorous absurdity and horror. However, the novel mostly explores a speculative intersection between employing quantum physics to travel, space ships, planetary exploration and terraforming, science, human invention and alien life. It is completely improbable while at the same time academically possible.
I have almost never read anything else like it. The book is in the same category of bizarre science fiction as is the novel The Quantum Thief, but more fun, even light-hearted, if unexpected violence and horrific torture similar to that undergone by characters in A Game of Thrones is entertaining to you, gentle reader. The story is full of wild and crazy speculative 'science' which is very likely forever beyond the capabilities of the human species. The plot's denouement is based on combining the ideas suggested by the maths of quantum physics, an alien invasion, and evil humans who have evolved beyond even the practice of bioengineering and body morphing. In other words, completely implausible, but fun to think about.
Version 43 is a cyborg, a Galactic Police Officer. He has arrived on the planet Belladonna, run by criminals, to investigate a possible quantum teleportation murder in the city of Bompasso, nicknamed 'Lawless City'. Five people, most of them doctors from a local hospital, are discovered to have been somehow torn apart as if they were teleported on the device called the 'fifty/fifty'. The fifty/fifty is a hyperspace transport under the control of legal offplanet governmental authorities. People who travel with it have a fifty percent chance of arriving at a destination alive. Criminals who are condemned on other worlds are sometimes offered the option of being transported to a planet like Belladonna, taking the risk of not arriving alive or in one piece. If they do successfully arrive alive, they usually will find employment or start a business under the watch of local criminal gangs who run each of the planets. The gangs maintain a bureaucratic government and control order on each criminal planet, but still murder and death is more common on planets like Belladonna than on other more regularised planets. Belladonna is one of several planets called The Exodus Universe to which criminals are deported and adventurers travel.
Cyborgs like Version 43 are brought into criminal cases of mass serial murder, alien genocide, AI cyber-fraud and banned technology. The murder of the five medical technicians fell under his jurisdiction because it involved mass murder with banned technology. Version 43 hopes he will find enough reason to do more than bring the murderer to justice - he wants to trash all of the four criminal gangs running Belladonna. The programming which tells him what to do gives him a strong itch to bring law and order to the planet's culture, not only to solve these murders, but he can't go beyond his remit.
After getting to know many of the main players, including a police officer, Aretha Jones, whom his previous versions had 'liked' (he no longer has the capability of 'liking', although she grows on him, apparently again for reasons he can't understand), 43 stirs up all kinds of troubles! He intentionally sets the gang leaders to fighting each other through the spreading of rumors and strategic killings. All in the name of solving his case, of course...but 43's strategy leads to his own demise a few times.
By the time Version 47 has returned to Belladonna in his new body, he is realizing there is more to the case than a plot devised from either a love affair gone wrong, his first guess, or gang rivalry over illegal trafficking of body parts, his second guess. There is an invisible hand at work, moving all of the planet's major characters, including him, like chess pieces. The cyborg often ignores his blind spots in his investigative skills, gentle reader, since he has a huge mistaken faith in his ability to conduct an investigation. Yet somehow, like a bull set free in a glassware shop, he begins to bust loose some clues.
Meanwhile, a strange hive-mind creature, made up of six minds it had eaten, is traveling from planet to planet, destroying utterly any human habitations it comes across. It hates all Mankind. It will not stop until every human is dead...however, The Fifth is utterly adorable. Lol.
The speculative science-fiction elements are the strongest reason behind my recommending this strange novel. It is mind-boggling from start to finish. But it is an interesting entertainment for the science-fiction fan of speculative science more than a story which is also a heartwarming or exciting read.
Below is a link to "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/cJxSwxexZYo
I have almost never read anything else like it. The book is in the same category of bizarre science fiction as is the novel The Quantum Thief, but more fun, even light-hearted, if unexpected violence and horrific torture similar to that undergone by characters in A Game of Thrones is entertaining to you, gentle reader. The story is full of wild and crazy speculative 'science' which is very likely forever beyond the capabilities of the human species. The plot's denouement is based on combining the ideas suggested by the maths of quantum physics, an alien invasion, and evil humans who have evolved beyond even the practice of bioengineering and body morphing. In other words, completely implausible, but fun to think about.
Version 43 is a cyborg, a Galactic Police Officer. He has arrived on the planet Belladonna, run by criminals, to investigate a possible quantum teleportation murder in the city of Bompasso, nicknamed 'Lawless City'. Five people, most of them doctors from a local hospital, are discovered to have been somehow torn apart as if they were teleported on the device called the 'fifty/fifty'. The fifty/fifty is a hyperspace transport under the control of legal offplanet governmental authorities. People who travel with it have a fifty percent chance of arriving at a destination alive. Criminals who are condemned on other worlds are sometimes offered the option of being transported to a planet like Belladonna, taking the risk of not arriving alive or in one piece. If they do successfully arrive alive, they usually will find employment or start a business under the watch of local criminal gangs who run each of the planets. The gangs maintain a bureaucratic government and control order on each criminal planet, but still murder and death is more common on planets like Belladonna than on other more regularised planets. Belladonna is one of several planets called The Exodus Universe to which criminals are deported and adventurers travel.
Cyborgs like Version 43 are brought into criminal cases of mass serial murder, alien genocide, AI cyber-fraud and banned technology. The murder of the five medical technicians fell under his jurisdiction because it involved mass murder with banned technology. Version 43 hopes he will find enough reason to do more than bring the murderer to justice - he wants to trash all of the four criminal gangs running Belladonna. The programming which tells him what to do gives him a strong itch to bring law and order to the planet's culture, not only to solve these murders, but he can't go beyond his remit.
After getting to know many of the main players, including a police officer, Aretha Jones, whom his previous versions had 'liked' (he no longer has the capability of 'liking', although she grows on him, apparently again for reasons he can't understand), 43 stirs up all kinds of troubles! He intentionally sets the gang leaders to fighting each other through the spreading of rumors and strategic killings. All in the name of solving his case, of course...but 43's strategy leads to his own demise a few times.
By the time Version 47 has returned to Belladonna in his new body, he is realizing there is more to the case than a plot devised from either a love affair gone wrong, his first guess, or gang rivalry over illegal trafficking of body parts, his second guess. There is an invisible hand at work, moving all of the planet's major characters, including him, like chess pieces. The cyborg often ignores his blind spots in his investigative skills, gentle reader, since he has a huge mistaken faith in his ability to conduct an investigation. Yet somehow, like a bull set free in a glassware shop, he begins to bust loose some clues.
Meanwhile, a strange hive-mind creature, made up of six minds it had eaten, is traveling from planet to planet, destroying utterly any human habitations it comes across. It hates all Mankind. It will not stop until every human is dead...however, The Fifth is utterly adorable. Lol.
The speculative science-fiction elements are the strongest reason behind my recommending this strange novel. It is mind-boggling from start to finish. But it is an interesting entertainment for the science-fiction fan of speculative science more than a story which is also a heartwarming or exciting read.
Below is a link to "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/cJxSwxexZYo
February 19, 2019
Warning: This book eats people.
Don't you believe me?
It eats your time, that much is for certain - you pick it up at half-past ten at night so you can have a nice little read before you go to- what, it's 3 AM already? And you're over a third of the way through this monster of a book?
It eats your mind, whatever you are doing during the day (whilst admittedly rather tired, note the above) you find your mind slowly wondering back to the plot, to the characters, to certain moments, to theories, to... I think you get the idea.
It eats your heart. Characters you initially didn't care much for you find yourself warming to in a rather alarming fashion. You don't notice it, not until you sit back and think.
I'm not saying this book isn't without faults - at some point during the first chunk I found myself not all too interested (evidently that opinion changed) and the author at some scenes seems not to be content to merely note the fact that there is... much debauchery but instead insists to go into quite some detail, which a reader may wish to skip, or not as the case might be, who am I to judge the theoretical readers of this review?
Yes, certain scenes were incredibly cheesy but it was an enthralling read with characters I could get invested with and wonderful world-building, not to mention humorous snark.
Perhaps I enjoyed this book because it simply didn't care about how cheesy it got, the main character can exchange his eyes for lasers if he wants, and he is rather powerful, if never quite as smart as he thinks himself.
All in all, yes, this book is recommended.
Don't you believe me?
It eats your time, that much is for certain - you pick it up at half-past ten at night so you can have a nice little read before you go to- what, it's 3 AM already? And you're over a third of the way through this monster of a book?
It eats your mind, whatever you are doing during the day (whilst admittedly rather tired, note the above) you find your mind slowly wondering back to the plot, to the characters, to certain moments, to theories, to... I think you get the idea.
It eats your heart. Characters you initially didn't care much for you find yourself warming to in a rather alarming fashion. You don't notice it, not until you sit back and think.
I'm not saying this book isn't without faults - at some point during the first chunk I found myself not all too interested (evidently that opinion changed) and the author at some scenes seems not to be content to merely note the fact that there is... much debauchery but instead insists to go into quite some detail, which a reader may wish to skip, or not as the case might be, who am I to judge the theoretical readers of this review?
Yes, certain scenes were incredibly cheesy but it was an enthralling read with characters I could get invested with and wonderful world-building, not to mention humorous snark.
Perhaps I enjoyed this book because it simply didn't care about how cheesy it got, the main character can exchange his eyes for lasers if he wants, and he is rather powerful, if never quite as smart as he thinks himself.
All in all, yes, this book is recommended.
November 17, 2014
Version 43 is the first book I've read by Philip Palmer, and on the evidence I think I'll be seeking out more.
A standalone science fiction full of ideas it's perhaps outside my normal reading matter - not in that it's SciFi, but in that it's a standalone, quick read, novel.
Version 43 is an android cop of sort, who is sent to investigate a horrific crime on a backwater planet. The planet is part of the outer sphere of human habitation, where convicts from Earth were sent via some form of Quantum Teleportation called the "50/50", i.e. only half survive the journey.
Add the fact the Version 43 is... well... the 43rd version of this android, as every time he dies he's "rebuilt" as the new version but with no memories, and you have a fascinating story that documents what it is to be human, and how experience and a history makes the person.
Then add the fact that an all consuming alien hive intelligence is threatening to wipe out humanity, and they have the ability to alter the flow of time (giving them effectively an eternity to learn to counter any threat) and you have a rip roaring adventure.
Then throw in the anciens, an essentially immortal race who learned to use quantum mechanics as a weapon and survival technique, yet basically wallow in simple cruelty or euphoria.
I told you it's full of ideas!
I loved:
The Alien hive mind
Version 43's groundhog-day like ability to try, try, and try again
Didn't like:
The fact it's the only story set in this universe!
5/5
A standalone science fiction full of ideas it's perhaps outside my normal reading matter - not in that it's SciFi, but in that it's a standalone, quick read, novel.
Version 43 is an android cop of sort, who is sent to investigate a horrific crime on a backwater planet. The planet is part of the outer sphere of human habitation, where convicts from Earth were sent via some form of Quantum Teleportation called the "50/50", i.e. only half survive the journey.
Add the fact the Version 43 is... well... the 43rd version of this android, as every time he dies he's "rebuilt" as the new version but with no memories, and you have a fascinating story that documents what it is to be human, and how experience and a history makes the person.
Then add the fact that an all consuming alien hive intelligence is threatening to wipe out humanity, and they have the ability to alter the flow of time (giving them effectively an eternity to learn to counter any threat) and you have a rip roaring adventure.
Then throw in the anciens, an essentially immortal race who learned to use quantum mechanics as a weapon and survival technique, yet basically wallow in simple cruelty or euphoria.
I told you it's full of ideas!
I loved:
The Alien hive mind
Version 43's groundhog-day like ability to try, try, and try again
Didn't like:
The fact it's the only story set in this universe!
5/5
February 25, 2023
A cyborg cop is sent to an outlaw planet to solve a murder. Beyond the characterization of the cyborg, which was incredible, the ideas in this book just kept coming. The human side of the cyborg’s personality. The fifty-fifty nature of quantum travel. The use of quantum weapons. The manipulation and abuse of longevity “medicine”. The hive-mind of an alien race as pertains to their defeated enemies and their ability to manipulate time. A really odd noir murder mystery set on an outlaw world being investigated by a cyborg with a healthy dose of quantum physics thrown in. There was even an appendix on how quantum travel and communication could take place in this universe. Very clever stuff and entertaining too. Different than 99% of the science fiction out there.
June 22, 2025
Inventive and gripping, but at times too much irrelevant material. I ended up skipping chunks of this book. Less would have been more in this case.
When I was younger, I used to devour sci-fi in great undigestible chunks. It was all good, as long as it flowed.
Now I find I crave more realism in fiction (and find enough incredible stuff in non-fiction). So what I'm saying is that this book was great, but this reader suffers from some serious limitations.
When I was younger, I used to devour sci-fi in great undigestible chunks. It was all good, as long as it flowed.
Now I find I crave more realism in fiction (and find enough incredible stuff in non-fiction). So what I'm saying is that this book was great, but this reader suffers from some serious limitations.
February 8, 2011
Escalation is the name of the game for this long and, unfortunately, rather muddled novel. Version 43 is the latest iteration of Galactic Cop model X-55, a cyborg whose near-invulnerable robotic body is inhabited by a human-based template that gets wiped and reconstituted after every mission. Yes, there were 42 earlier versions. Version 43 is posted to the planet Belladonna, a frontier anarchy run by a cabal of gangsters, where immortality is the privilege of the few and the murder rate is the highest in the Galaxy. One of Version 43's previous instantiations was on Belladonna a century ago. This time, Version 43 is on Belladonna to solve a gruesome multiple murder that apparently used a banned variant of quantum teleportation technology to scramble its victims.
And then things get weirder. And weirder, and more and more implausible. For hundreds of pages. Verisimilitude goes out the window early on, and there were several places where the book actually seemed to end, with a final climax that looked impossible to circumvent... but then I'd look at the number of pages left and realize that this couldn't really be the end. And it wasn't. Cliffhangers and plot twists galore; if that's your meat, this is a butcher shop.
And, speaking of butchery... the death toll in this book is staggering, and much of it is perpetrated by its protagonist. Always for good and proper reasons, of course, but still... it's hard to sympathize with a hero whose body count is this high. Of course, Version 43 is an unreliable narrator, as are his successors; not everything he records in his database is true, even if it's all factual.
There's plenty of whiz-bang here, but there doesn't seem to be any overarching theme or system to it, and Palmer's quest to keep ratcheting up the excitement eventually just left me exhausted. The denouement, while unexpected, seemed rather flat. Version 43 is an okay read if you're hard up for something to read, but I can't really say I'd recommend it.
And then things get weirder. And weirder, and more and more implausible. For hundreds of pages. Verisimilitude goes out the window early on, and there were several places where the book actually seemed to end, with a final climax that looked impossible to circumvent... but then I'd look at the number of pages left and realize that this couldn't really be the end. And it wasn't. Cliffhangers and plot twists galore; if that's your meat, this is a butcher shop.
And, speaking of butchery... the death toll in this book is staggering, and much of it is perpetrated by its protagonist. Always for good and proper reasons, of course, but still... it's hard to sympathize with a hero whose body count is this high. Of course, Version 43 is an unreliable narrator, as are his successors; not everything he records in his database is true, even if it's all factual.
There's plenty of whiz-bang here, but there doesn't seem to be any overarching theme or system to it, and Palmer's quest to keep ratcheting up the excitement eventually just left me exhausted. The denouement, while unexpected, seemed rather flat. Version 43 is an okay read if you're hard up for something to read, but I can't really say I'd recommend it.
January 16, 2019
A totally engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable read. Just when I thought I had the story figured out, the Hive Rats show up and there is another story happening within the original story line. A fantastic read for Sci-fi fans.
August 30, 2017
In sum, good, not great. (As already evidenced I suppose by the three-star rating ...). Some interesting concepts, but also a lot of lazy writing (or plotting) and deus ex machina.
September 6, 2012
There were so many things that I loved about this book. I loved the setting. I loved how it was so in-your-face and yet had this second, deeper tier of questions. I loved (reluctantly at first, I must admit) the cyborg cop telling the story. The story itself was, in my opinion, a little insane, but there's a certain insanity that should come with any good science fiction story.
However, I feel like I can't talk about what I really loved without divulging details, so the rest of this review is going under a spoiler cut, just in case.
However, I feel like I can't talk about what I really loved without divulging details, so the rest of this review is going under a spoiler cut, just in case.
January 8, 2017
Version 43 is a eerie dystopian sci fi by Philip Palmer. The story follows a cyborg robocop who wishes to restore peace and order to the corrupt people of Belladonna, and he starts out as Version 43. Belladonna is no ordinary planet, and you must take the 50/50 to get there; it’s a teleportation that has no guarantee, a 50/50 chance. Along the journey of the cyborg, he doesn’t let anything get in his way, and he sacrifices many for the greater good.
I started this book thinking it was the best thing in the world, but I have reason to believe otherwise. Like many people who have read this book, I also believe it is too fast paced, and it does not give rest time to start another event; it just keeps firing. In the book, many things seemed too grand for my liking, such as the endless talk about the other universes and creatures, it makes it difficult to follow. Having so many things to remember and then more events added honestly hurts my brain, but this book is really well thought out too. A lot of the events that were happening tied into each other, however I still believe that the writing was too hard to follow.
I started this book thinking it was the best thing in the world, but I have reason to believe otherwise. Like many people who have read this book, I also believe it is too fast paced, and it does not give rest time to start another event; it just keeps firing. In the book, many things seemed too grand for my liking, such as the endless talk about the other universes and creatures, it makes it difficult to follow. Having so many things to remember and then more events added honestly hurts my brain, but this book is really well thought out too. A lot of the events that were happening tied into each other, however I still believe that the writing was too hard to follow.
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August 7, 2011Version 43 is a Galactic Cop, a cyborg sworn to uphold order throughout the Galaxy. Brought to a corrupt and violent planet to solve a murder, he quickly finds himself in over his head, caught in a web of organised crime.
Well that's how the book starts off, anyway. But Version 43 falls far short of Takeshi Kovacs or Lije Bailey as a futuristic crime stopper or vigilante. Instead the reader has to plough through 500+ pages of ham-fisted prose, in the midst of which the author repeatedly decides to rewrite the rules or throw in a plot twist that seems barely credible. This is all wrapped up in a milieu full of tacky laser beams and space ships. An example of the typical level of writing is something like: "The flying car swept down and our plasma cannons fired. Anti-aircraft guns fired back but the plasma blasts were absorbed by our force fields." or "All that remained was to kill every other human being in the Universe".
Overall, a somewhat silly story, lacking in much sophistication, insight or subtlety.
Well that's how the book starts off, anyway. But Version 43 falls far short of Takeshi Kovacs or Lije Bailey as a futuristic crime stopper or vigilante. Instead the reader has to plough through 500+ pages of ham-fisted prose, in the midst of which the author repeatedly decides to rewrite the rules or throw in a plot twist that seems barely credible. This is all wrapped up in a milieu full of tacky laser beams and space ships. An example of the typical level of writing is something like: "The flying car swept down and our plasma cannons fired. Anti-aircraft guns fired back but the plasma blasts were absorbed by our force fields." or "All that remained was to kill every other human being in the Universe".
Overall, a somewhat silly story, lacking in much sophistication, insight or subtlety.
September 30, 2011
The premise is very clever-- a semi-human cyborg cop is dispatched to a planet full of convicts to investigate a particularly gruesome mass murder. But what starts out as a kind of SF noir detective story kind of spirals out of control. It becomes clear at some point that we're in Philip K. Dick territory, exploring ideas about what it means to be human, the nature of reality, and stuff like that. Which I'm totally cool with, but Dick did it in 250 pages with a very tight, fast-moving plot. This one runs to 500, and once the immediacy of the plot runs out, you're left with the characters, who don't really resonate emotionally, and the Big Ideas, which are interesting, but you know, not at this length. I appreciated Palmer's inventiveness and his writing and would read another of his books, but this one just didn't work for me.
March 6, 2011
The problem with Philip Palmer is that he kills so many people, that if I don't want to get too sad about it, all I can do is not give a damn.
So after he's destroyed hundreds of planets and literally trillions of people and aliens, I find myself totally detached from the whole crazy story. Even though he's a great writer with amazing ideas.
So after he's destroyed hundreds of planets and literally trillions of people and aliens, I find myself totally detached from the whole crazy story. Even though he's a great writer with amazing ideas.
August 13, 2022
The Earth government lets the outlying colony planets run themselves, only stepping in in cases of mass murder, genocide, or using banned technology. This means these planets can be anything from utopian paradises to lawless hellholes. As long as they agree to receive the riffraff and scum from the inner systems and keep sending out the commodities then everything is fine. When things aren't fine, that's when the Galactic Cop comes in.
The planet Belladonna is a outlying colony which is not a utopian paradise. Vice runs rampant, murders happen in huge numbers and are rarely solved, the Mayor is corrupt, the police are literally owned by the crime bosses, and the powerful elite live in safety and luxury in huge skyscrapers. Basically, it's Chicago. An event occurs that brings in the Galactic Cop, who is basically a cyborg killing machine that does a little police work on the side. He is summoned after the gruesome murder of 5 or 6 people(I forget). It's not the number of deaths that matter, but how they are killed. Someone has used some kind of quantum device to mess these people up like Sonak in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". That's banned tech and worthy of the Galactic Cop's notice.
The Galactic Cop goes off the rails pretty much right away and decides that he should clean up the planet and maybe even solve the murder along the way. After that it becomes a series of episodes where the Cop investigates, finds a conspiracy, kills a bunch of people, then gets killed himself. Then he downloads into a new body and does it again. And each time he finds that the last conspiracy was just a small part of the bigger conspiracy, then he gets killed again. Eventually, after many conspiracies and lots of dead people (like thousands) and several dead Cops he finds the Most Biggest Conspiracy. Then the aliens invade.
This book follows the formula of the previous two books in the series. The universe is a horrible place, the people are all psychological wrecks, lots of people(like millions) die, the plot unfolds like a Russian doll, there are a series of battles with increasingly escalating levels of technology, and there's an alien race sitting just outside all of it. Plus, serious introspection by the characters, though this time the story is totally in first person so it's just the cyborg cop that does all the soul searching. It's my favorite so far, maybe because we stick with the same guy throughout. Maybe I just like the unstoppable killing machine that keeps downloading into new bodies and keeps coming back no matter who tries to stop him.
The planet Belladonna is a outlying colony which is not a utopian paradise. Vice runs rampant, murders happen in huge numbers and are rarely solved, the Mayor is corrupt, the police are literally owned by the crime bosses, and the powerful elite live in safety and luxury in huge skyscrapers. Basically, it's Chicago. An event occurs that brings in the Galactic Cop, who is basically a cyborg killing machine that does a little police work on the side. He is summoned after the gruesome murder of 5 or 6 people(I forget). It's not the number of deaths that matter, but how they are killed. Someone has used some kind of quantum device to mess these people up like Sonak in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". That's banned tech and worthy of the Galactic Cop's notice.
The Galactic Cop goes off the rails pretty much right away and decides that he should clean up the planet and maybe even solve the murder along the way. After that it becomes a series of episodes where the Cop investigates, finds a conspiracy, kills a bunch of people, then gets killed himself. Then he downloads into a new body and does it again. And each time he finds that the last conspiracy was just a small part of the bigger conspiracy, then he gets killed again. Eventually, after many conspiracies and lots of dead people (like thousands) and several dead Cops he finds the Most Biggest Conspiracy. Then the aliens invade.
This book follows the formula of the previous two books in the series. The universe is a horrible place, the people are all psychological wrecks, lots of people(like millions) die, the plot unfolds like a Russian doll, there are a series of battles with increasingly escalating levels of technology, and there's an alien race sitting just outside all of it. Plus, serious introspection by the characters, though this time the story is totally in first person so it's just the cyborg cop that does all the soul searching. It's my favorite so far, maybe because we stick with the same guy throughout. Maybe I just like the unstoppable killing machine that keeps downloading into new bodies and keeps coming back no matter who tries to stop him.
December 18, 2017
Greatly inventive and unique. Interesting study of evil and revenge, and their consequences, but the long feared nemeses are awkwardly presented and too easily dispatched. The protagonist's struggle with his humanity is also repeatedly presented in a similar manner throughout the book with little progress, and this becomes quite tiresome.
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January 19, 2021Awesome read, very engaging and I really like stories with the central mechanics of Version 43. Good action and intrigue and just a few larger issues worked in that I hope we can return to Palmer's world one day.
January 7, 2018
Crazy awesome.
August 3, 2018
Cool story. My first by this author. Lots of twists and turns. Long, though. I feel like this book could use a little editing.
September 5, 2022
Pretty bizarre wide ranging assemblage of ideas with, in my opinion, variable success. Somewhat fun, sometimes disjointed story.
January 7, 2025
This was awful. There are attempts at humor but it is amidst horrible crimes and gore that it simply does not work and the underlying logic of the protagonist just isn't there. Not worth your time.
June 27, 2025
Wanted to read this book or rather listen to the book but we can’t because it is not available on Audible. Oh well…
June 27, 2019
Couldn’t finish this one, got 1/2 way through and just got fed up of the constant agonising of decision’s. Unusual for me to get this far in a book and give up, ho hum, on to the next one!
May 6, 2011
Version 43 is a novel of vast, widescreen scope. It is constantly pulling back its focus to reveal a wider stage for its action. It is also full of incident and rarely pauses for breath. And yet… it seems rather less engaging than one might anticipate.
Philip Palmer’s third novel takes us to the planet Belladonna, and more specifically to Bompasso, more commonly known as Lawless City, thanks to its being run by criminal gangs. The only way to reach this world is via quantum teleportation, a process with only a 50% chance of survival; the scrambled bodies of five medics would seem to suggest that, somehow, the technology is now being used as a weapon. Sent to investigate this is our narrator, a Galactic Cop, once human, now a cyborg in his 43rd iteration; he is immensely powerful and unwavering in the pursuit of his mission – which turns out to have a much larger context than he first thought.
Alongside the main narrative, we follow the Hive-Rats, a species bent on conquest, controlled by a hive-mind of the species they have absorbed, and able to alter the flow of time (and hence to subjectively speed up their evolution in response to any obstacle). Eventually, the two story-strands intersect, giving the Cop even more to contend with.
An ever-expanding canvas like this would seem to lend itself naturally to an exciting sf adventure story but, in this case, I find that the combination of the plot’s great scope and the Cop’s detached viewpoint instead distances one from the action. It becomes difficult to care about what’s happening, partly because individual dramas get lost in the throng and partly because the Cop doesn’t care – his directive is all and it doesn’t matter who gets hurt or killed along the way; there are a few moments of introspection where the Cop starts to wonder about the ethics of what he is doing but they don’t change the overall affect of the story.
Even on a scene-by-scene basis, the action is not particularly involving. It feels like watching one video-game fight sequence after another, without the immersion; this impression is reinforced by the episodic structure of Version 43, which sees the Cop repeatedly destroyed then regenerated as a new version; as he remarks towards the end: “They could keep killing me; I would keep being reborn; it would be a long slow game of attrition.” Quite so – and that, I think, is part of the problem.
There’s a certain amount of interest generated by the sheer amount of plot, as one wonders just how Palmer is going to resolve everything. And the squabbling between the Minds of the Hive-Rats is quite entertaining. Overall, however, Version 43 is not a great read.
This review first appeared in Vector 266, Spring 2011.
Philip Palmer’s third novel takes us to the planet Belladonna, and more specifically to Bompasso, more commonly known as Lawless City, thanks to its being run by criminal gangs. The only way to reach this world is via quantum teleportation, a process with only a 50% chance of survival; the scrambled bodies of five medics would seem to suggest that, somehow, the technology is now being used as a weapon. Sent to investigate this is our narrator, a Galactic Cop, once human, now a cyborg in his 43rd iteration; he is immensely powerful and unwavering in the pursuit of his mission – which turns out to have a much larger context than he first thought.
Alongside the main narrative, we follow the Hive-Rats, a species bent on conquest, controlled by a hive-mind of the species they have absorbed, and able to alter the flow of time (and hence to subjectively speed up their evolution in response to any obstacle). Eventually, the two story-strands intersect, giving the Cop even more to contend with.
An ever-expanding canvas like this would seem to lend itself naturally to an exciting sf adventure story but, in this case, I find that the combination of the plot’s great scope and the Cop’s detached viewpoint instead distances one from the action. It becomes difficult to care about what’s happening, partly because individual dramas get lost in the throng and partly because the Cop doesn’t care – his directive is all and it doesn’t matter who gets hurt or killed along the way; there are a few moments of introspection where the Cop starts to wonder about the ethics of what he is doing but they don’t change the overall affect of the story.
Even on a scene-by-scene basis, the action is not particularly involving. It feels like watching one video-game fight sequence after another, without the immersion; this impression is reinforced by the episodic structure of Version 43, which sees the Cop repeatedly destroyed then regenerated as a new version; as he remarks towards the end: “They could keep killing me; I would keep being reborn; it would be a long slow game of attrition.” Quite so – and that, I think, is part of the problem.
There’s a certain amount of interest generated by the sheer amount of plot, as one wonders just how Palmer is going to resolve everything. And the squabbling between the Minds of the Hive-Rats is quite entertaining. Overall, however, Version 43 is not a great read.
This review first appeared in Vector 266, Spring 2011.
December 6, 2010
Not as good as Red Claw, and about on par with Debatable Space. Palmer's intense writing carries the story as always, and his graceful portrayals of extreme violence are entertaining.
While not a bad novel, this really doesn't get very far in terms of reader involvement because the characters are so stiff. Macawley, Aretha, the Sheriff, Filipa--they're all there for most of the story, but none develops a personality that feels like it's worth following. There is little character development in anyone except the different Versions.
I didn't get the same "epic" feel that Red Claw and Debatable Space had, which really dragged it down for me. But I will give credit to the Hive-Rats, who are a fascinating idea for a race hell-bent on the destruction of humanity, yet are still, ultimately...rats, albeit very intelligent and powerful rats.
In any case, the novel didn't live up to my expectations. It wasn't a bad read, but since I've read Red Claw twice, I don't think this will be held in the same esteem.
I'm still looking to Palmer's fourth novel, though. A word of advice for Palmer: Learn how to develop characters we can care for. Learn that and we'll all be good.
While not a bad novel, this really doesn't get very far in terms of reader involvement because the characters are so stiff. Macawley, Aretha, the Sheriff, Filipa--they're all there for most of the story, but none develops a personality that feels like it's worth following. There is little character development in anyone except the different Versions.
I didn't get the same "epic" feel that Red Claw and Debatable Space had, which really dragged it down for me. But I will give credit to the Hive-Rats, who are a fascinating idea for a race hell-bent on the destruction of humanity, yet are still, ultimately...rats, albeit very intelligent and powerful rats.
In any case, the novel didn't live up to my expectations. It wasn't a bad read, but since I've read Red Claw twice, I don't think this will be held in the same esteem.
I'm still looking to Palmer's fourth novel, though. A word of advice for Palmer: Learn how to develop characters we can care for. Learn that and we'll all be good.
July 6, 2016
I really liked Palmer's previous book, Redclaw, which was also pretty over the top. But that one felt carefully controlled and reasonably well-written. This one felt phoned in, to the point where the protagonist has a page-long exposition dump in conversation with another (cardboard) character, and justifies the exposition dump by saying something to the effect of "I don't know why I decided to tell her this, but I did." I didn't get very far because of shit like this. It felt very lazy and amateurish, full of dialogue trying to be self-consciously hip and clever but which just sounds like Shia Lebouf trying to act in a Michael Bay movie. I think this is what would happen if a fourteen-year-old boy decided to rip off Jonathan Lethem. Pass.
January 9, 2013
Really enjoyed, reminded me a lot of Philip K. Dick, but even more pulpy, if that's possible. Really enjoyed the main character, personally I thought that he changed over the course of the story, in ways that made sense. Also, for being a brutal and violent tale, there were suprising moments of tenderness and humanity. Would definitely recommend for fans of scifi, particularly those who like the mind-bending variety.
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