A. Lee Martinez

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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She pushed a chair into a corner of the room not visible from the street and sat. There was a feel to her life. Danger didn’t usually feel this dangerous. Danger was just background noise. But this was a lot of people trying to kill her. More than normal.

WHAT'S CONSTANCE VERITY DESTROYS THE UNIVERSE ABOUT?
This book starts off with Constance Verity doing something almost unbelievable for her—normal things. She attends a dinner party show more to celebrate her best friend's/sidekick's upcoming wedding, she spends a day hanging out with her fiancé at a park and museum—sure, there's a duel with an alien in there, as well as dealing with an international crisis, etc. But for Connie, that's pretty sedate.

Then things stop happening—no death rays, mad scientists, pan-dimensional threats—not even a kitten stuck in a tree. It's unnerving to all who know her well. On the plus side, Tia and Hiro's wedding should go off without an interruption, right? And it does—the reception, however...

When things start happening again, there's a distressing trend—people from all over the universe and time show up because they've been told that Constance Verity is going to destroy the universe, and they're going to stop her. The assassins are plentiful enough that Connie's getting nervous—so she does what she can to keep her loved ones safe and then sets out to see why people are saying she's going to destroy the universe. All she's ever done is save it, why would she change?

A PLETHORA OF IDEAS

Connie had a problem with Nebraska. And that problem was that it was too close to Kansas.

Kansas, where dark gods waited to rise from their forgotten tombs and bring about the extinction of mankind.

Kansas, where all time travel led to a black void where a pale, wizened figure would greet you, playing a banjo and singing endless choruses of “Achy Breaky Heart.”

Kansas, where Connie had come the closest to death on more than one occasion.

Kansas, her kryptonite.

In a sentence or two—or five brief paragraphs in the above quotation—Martinez is able to tell a whole story—or at least hint at one. Most of these little stories could be fodder for a novella or a novel, but in this trilogy, they're given anywhere from a sentence fragment to a page. And then he moves on to something else so the plot can be advanced.

Every A. Lee Martinez novel has a surfeit of ideas that come flying at you, that's nothing new. But I think in these Constance Verity novels that he's outdone himself. Martinez treats these all as throw-away remarks, with no real investment of time on the reader's part. But it has to be the kind of thing that would drive your average novelist to exhaustion just trying to come up with them all.

You get just a taste of a fantastic adventure or death-defying feat that Connie's pulled off (frequently with Tia at her side) in these. You add enough of these together and you really start to see all the things that Constance has done and you understand how much is riding on her successes and how she's become a legendary figure throughout the universe.

SORRY, DESIDERIUS ERASMUS ROTERODAMUS*
It probably says something about the way my brain works that my favorite writing on Free Will vs. Determinism comes from Science Fiction—particularly those prone to a comedic tone. Okay, it says a lot about me, but that's for another time.

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe plays with those ideas a lot—even knowing (after being told repeatedly from reliable sources) that she's going to destroy the Universe, Connie refuses to believe it and flat out says she won't. This idea is treated with derision by some (rightly) and supported and echoed by others (also, rightly). The mostly retired demigoddess of destiny that has moved into Connie's apartment building cannot muster up the desire to weigh in on this, and of anyone, you'd think she'd have a lot to say about it.

I'm not saying that I think Martinez has penned a well-developed treatise on the idea in the middle of this SF/Fantasy Action novel—I'm just saying he has a lot of fun playing with the idea and that anyone who enjoys that sort of thing will find the Free Will vs. Determinism discussion a tasty side dish to accompany the SF/Fantasy entree.

* Okay, not really sorry.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT CONSTANCE VERITY DESTROYS THE UNIVERSE?

"I don’t have a lot of other leads, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that when in doubt, point myself toward the nearest adventure and let it work itself out.”

I hate that this volume is the end of the road for this trilogy—but I'm not sure what else he could accomplish in this world. When the series started, Connie was an adventurer/savior-of-the-universe wanting a normal life and being unable to; and we wrap up things up with her finding her own brand of normal, which she'll be able to enjoy if she survives the assassination attempts and doesn't destroy the universe. That's a pretty decent arc.

I think I like the arc that her side-kick/best friend Tia goes on a smidge better, but that might be because Tia's a bit more relatable to those of us not burdened with cosmic destiny. Either way, it's a good run.

The ending of this is perfect on several levels—exactly how a novel (or a series) like this should end.

Could you read this apart from the other two novels? Yeah, I suppose. But I don't think it'd be a great stand-alone, but you could get away with it. Why you'd want to, I don't know—the first two books in the series are a blast.

On Twitter and his blog, Martinez will insist that he doesn't write humor or comedy, that he's not that satirical. I'm not so sure, but let's take him at his word. His SF/Fantasy adventures (this one and all his others) are so funny that you can see why people would make that mistake. But when you ignore the humor, you get a very satisfying SF/Fantasy story that takes tropes and themes you're very familiar with and presents them to you in a way that makes you see them with fresh eyes and frequently makes you re-evaluate the trope/theme to come at it with a new appreciation. If you happen to chuckle along the way, consider that a bonus.

Obviously, I recommend Constance Verity Destroys the Universe to you—and everything else Martinez has penned. Thank me later (if you remember to). show less

I was thoroughly entertained by this book. It's one of the most original books I have read in a long while. The cast was colourful and fun to get to know; I particularly liked Vom and the small dog. It throws the whole "monsters in the closet" idea right on its head.

It was a quick read, as it was so fast-paced and I found it so enjoyable. It was written with a sense of humour that was right up my street. The characters were all memorable and well-written, and there wasn't one of them that show more was unlikable or out of place. Diana was brilliant: I loved the way she came to terms with what was happening and just went along with it all. There were some interesting messages in here, particularly about the way in which the cosmic monsters were only terrifying because that's how everyone perceived them, and they didn't know how else to be. It was quite refreshing in fact.

My main criticism with this book was that the plot was a bit thin: there was so much action and little scenes throughout the book that at times the point of it all went missing. But it was such good fun. Will be reading more books by this author now. show less

This was an easy, fun read with some real truths tucked away in the corners. The characters were unique and well fleshed out. The Nameless Witch with her curse of immortality was an amazing person who was just the opposite of what people expected in a witch. I loved her wise cracking familiar Newt. The tongue in cheek comedy kept the story light and made it an enjoyable story right up to the very end. This was not a m/m romance and while there was a hope at romance between the witch and show more Wyst, the story was more about following your own reality. There was a HEA of sorts in my opinion. This was a good book to kickoff the Halloween reading season. show less

This is a fun combination of a sort of comic book-y retro-future setting, featuring robots, mutants, and flying cars, and a hard-boiled detective story complete with seedy jazz clubs, trench coats and fedoras, and a buxom dame. (For the record, the buxom dame also happens to be an engineering genius, which I thoroughly approve of.)

I like this kind of genre-blending when it's done well, and Martinez does it very well. The world-building is great; it manages to be amusingly playful with both show more its detective and SF tropes, while still feeling like the world it depicts takes itself seriously. The plot's fun, too, with the robot detective (or, rather, robot killing machine-turned cab driver-turned detective) of the title investigating the disappearance of his neighbors only to find himself in the middle of something much, much bigger. By the end, there are alien conspiracies and action-packed robot fights, and all kind of entertaining things.

The one thing I'm unhappy with about this one is that, barring one short story, there don't seem to be any sequels. It ends in a way that seems like a great setup for an ongoing series, but apparently that never happened. Pity. I'd definitely be on board for it. show less