Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm of two minds on this one. I, like so many others before me, fell in LOVE with the concept. I mean, the cover has it all. WWII ace flying monkey with intrigue and mayhem. It just feels funky cool.

He's there, mind you, and he is exactly that, with a few caveats, but the majority of the novel isn't that.

That's where my other mind comes in, and while I'm not precisely disappointed, I do feel like I've been slightly bait-and-switched to a competent cyberpunk-noir SF with some fairly high Altered Carbon stakes. And I don't mean a murder mystery-type. I mean uploaded minds, AIs, and some heavy conspiracy stuff topped off with a coup.

See what I mean? The real novel is pretty fun all by itself. The introduction and continuation of the macaque FELT like it should have been the main-main character, but he was more like the wrench in the monkey business. Which is fine, really, and fun, but it also kinda felt like a lost SF UF opportunity.

I may continue, on the assumption that we focus more on his contributions, but maybe not.

This was pretty good but not brilliant, alas.

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