Reflections

This engrossing, thought provoking, Blade Runner inspired, Sci-Fi detective novel by Spanish author Rosa Montero held me from beginning to end. With thorough world-building, multi-dimensional characterizations, and a detailed and suspenseful plot, Tears in Rain explores the complexities and psychological tensions of living in a futuristic, climate damaged world peopled with humans, replicants and aliens. Normally I am wary of translations, but in this case I felt no story element was missing, including the joy of being able to sink into the text.

Replicant Detective Bruna Husky knows she only has about ten years total to live, a fact that runs through her mind several times a day. Created by humans for combat, she is strong, smart and fast, but the melancholy she sometimes feels can cause her to be rash and self-destructive. Every replicant has 500 implanted memories of a childhood that didn’t actually exist, false memories that are meant to make their short lives more comfortable, but in Bruna’s case knowing they aren’t real just makes her feel a sense of loss. When hired by a radical replicant rights group to investigate a series of suspicious, headline grabbing, murder-suicide deaths of replicants which are turning public opinion against her species it becomes personal for Bruna. She has an engaging and well-drawn Star Wars bar assortment of friends and acquaintances, but as she gets closer to the truth it becomes harder for Bruna to know who to trust.