There's little to like in the ugly and cliché-driven world Rowley (Arkham Woods
) creates to launch Tor's Heavy Metal Pulp line. In a future New York of implanted personalities and heavy weaponry, Det. Rook Venner, the archetypal good cop in a corrupt department, investigates a murder and finds the titular Plesur, a vat-grown, mentally impaired woman designed to be a sex toy, who apparently possesses important evidence. Only Rook can resist Plesur's engineered hotness, so he brings her home to protect her. Helped by a series of women who die to advance the plot, Rook and Plesur are soon dodging assassins and a vast government conspiracy. Even readers who can tolerate the hackneyed dialogue, overt misogyny, and predictable violence will be annoyed by the utterly unresolved ending. B&w illustrations by Justin Norman mostly serve to pad the story and emphasize its cartoonish nature. (Feb.)
