8 Remote Women

The eight stories in this collection chronicle the errant, almost surreal exploits of the case-hardened private eye, Koji Remote. A woman fearing that her father has become a nihilist, hires Koji to determine if it's safe to invite Dad to her wedding. A friend's sister requires his investigative skills to locate something she's lost in a dream. A potential client seems to want nothing more than to talk Koji's ear off. A young man wants to be reassured that his girlfriend's practical jokes are in fact only jokes. The apparent suicide of a halfnoid (half human, half android), Motherboard Black, compels Koji's friends to seek his help in trying to understand this ostensibly impossible turn of events. Things turn particularly weird when Koji is inadvertently waylaid by a group of aliens from another planet. In the title story, we meet eight women who seem to exist on the far side of a gap that persistently resists Koji's crossing. Then, having retired from the life of a private eye, Koji is pulled back into action by friends whose dog has been victimized by a corrupt veterinarian. In the collection's concluding novella, The Case, private eye Brock Meirski pursues the solution to a case that is as labyrinthine as life itself. From start to finish, 8 Remote Women sparkles like fireworks from another dimension.