Book Review: Ack-Ack Macaque

Every so often, a book comes along that just the cover and title are enough to at least take a flyer on it. In the case of Ack-Ack Macaque, our cover shows our fearless hero, a monkey, smoking a cigar in a bomber jacket while shooting a pistol.

Yeah, I was in.

The good/bad news is that the cover, and the concept, don't tell the whole story. Based off of a previously-published short story about our primate protagonist, the book is actually a futuristic concept with a lot of questions about artificial intelligence and the idea of brain/personality swapping. Ack-Ack Macaque is actually a super-famous MMO character as well as a monkey in the real world, and, well, once he figures that out...

The book is sci-fi at its pulpy best. I could spend some time criticizing some aspects of the plot, but I'm not entirely sure there's a point to it - after all, at the end of the day? You're getting a book where a monkey wants to kick some Nazi tail and has to settle for the real world society he's stuck in instead. The book also has some interesting ideas about MMOs and how one might work with a limited characterbase that I found pretty intriguing.

A solid, quick read. If you're looking for something fun, superficial, and different, you can't do much better than this one.

Available to buy at Book Depository.