Kieran Shea’s first novel, Koko Takes a Holiday (Titan Books), is an extremely fast-paced chunk of science fiction space operetta with attitude. In common with its pulp fiction antecedents, it’s unapologetically fast, furious, big on action, thin on story, and low key on characterization. But, in truth, none the worse for that – the book is so much fun that I couldn’t help but enjoy it.
Five hundred years from the present, ex-corporate mercenary Koko Martstellar is enjoying an easy early retirement as the owner of a male brothel on The Sixty Islands, a manufactured tropical resort archipelago known for its sex and simulated violence.
As the madam of the joint, she’s surrounded by smart talking boywhores, komodo dragons, and demanding, sometimes dangerous, customers. Her biggest daily decision is what her next drink might be.
All is well until her old comrade, Portia Delacompte, sends a squad of security personnel to murder her.
What follows is a pusruit into the void, and Koko ends up in the allegedly neutral space community of Alaungpaya. Where, it must be said, her troubles are only starting.
There is nothing startlingly original about Koko. I spotted influences from Blade Runner, various old fashioned space operas, even Logan’s Run — in this novel’s case the mass suicide is the outcome of a disease called depressus. But Koko herself is extremely likeable, and readers will doubtless welcome the forthcoming sequel.
One of the areas the book wins out is in the writing. Stylistic twists such as how we are introduced to Koko in the voice of one of her boywhore lovers, Archimedes, prove highly entertaining. Archimedes speaks with the vibe of a cliché oriental prostitute (he doesn’t actually say “me rove you rong time,” but you get the idea). At first I didn’t grasp why Shea had done this, but the eliptical form of the ending make the logic clear.
The move from first person to third person, to differing character points of view didn’t always work for me, but I understand the reasoning – the book does enjoy its world-building. One thing I felt worked extremely well, however, was the scripts for the media broadcasts, which captured the essence of this future world, the nature of key events, and how unpleasant popular media had become. In these short segments, Shea conveyed volumes about the universe he’s creating.
In summary, this is an excellent, undemanding and entertaining beach read (which so happens is where I was when I was reading it). Shea is a name to look out for, and I can only see his work getting better and better.
*Editor’s note: Tor.com has featured an excerpt of Koko Takes a Holiday if you’d like to get a free taste.
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Article by John Dodds John Dodds is the author of The Kendrick Chronicles crime novels (Bone Machines and Kali’s Kiss ) – the third novel in the series, Babylon Slide, is due out later in 2014. His YA steampunk superheroes novel, The Mechanikals, is out now for Kindle.
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