Created by Barney Cohen (1944--) and Jim Baen (1943-2006) One of the earliest sci-fi eyes is ASHER BOCKHORN, a tough, cynical, jasper-smoking world-weary op for the MexAmerica and Pacific Security Company who has a rather nifty hobby: he collects old (ie: 20th century) detective and science fiction paperbacks. Bockhorn appeared in just two novels, The … Continue reading Asher Bockhorn
Tag: Down Those Mean Skies
Duster Raines
Created by Josh Mendoza Okay, here we go! Shadow of the Eternal Watcher (2025) is another pulpy PI/sci-fi hybrid that tries to please both fanbases. And it introduces us to cynical Los Angeles private dick, DUSTER RAINES, who's at first glance pretty much standard issue. He used to be a cop (LAPD). He's a vet. … Continue reading Duster Raines
Nameless (Rusch)
Created by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Here's an outlier, for sure. In the 2023 short story "The Nameless Dead," crime and sci-fi writer Rusch introduces a NAMELESS detective who decides, at the ripe old age of twenty-five, that life on earth just isn't working for her, and pulls the plug. She signs up for a job … Continue reading Nameless (Rusch)
Mathew Swain
Created by Mike McQuay Sorry, but this sci-fi/P.I. hybrid works better as spoof, than straight. McQuay dedicated the whole series to to the memory of Raymond Chandler, "because he understood." It's too bad McQuay didn't. Chandler wanted to rise above the pulps, not wallow in them. But a bit of misguided name-dropping aside, the series … Continue reading Mathew Swain
Sian Holt (Star Wars: The High Republic)
Created by Daniel José Older and David Wachter Well, it had to happen... The Star Wars universe has, as far as I can tell, finally unveiled its very first private investigator. SIAN HOLT is a high-priced space shamus who operates during the so-called High Republic Era, which takes place about two hundred years before the events … Continue reading Sian Holt (Star Wars: The High Republic)
Ruth Law
Created by Ken Liu "He misses her, like missing a mirror you’ve broken." In "The Regular," a short story by acclaimed sci-fi writer Ken Liu, we're introduced to RUTH LAW, a coldly efficient half-Chinese, half-American private eye who works out of a tiny office above a butcher shop in Boston's Chinatown. She specializes mostly in "hidden assets, … Continue reading Ruth Law