The Sisters Brothers

Well the title of Patrick DeWitt's black comedy western is suggestive of the book's overall tenor. Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired guns who work for a powerful man in Oregon City known as the Commodore. Eli never really wanted to be in this line of work but has always backed up his older brother who seemed to instigate a lot of fights that ended with somebody being dead. Lately Charlie has been a tad more critical of Eli about everything and Eli is thinking he wants to go run a general store instead of killing people for not very good reasons. The bulk of this tale recounts their (mis)adventures on the trip from Oregon City to California where they are supposed to find a man the Commodore wants dead named Hermann Kermit Warm. Turns out Mr. Warm has invented a formula to make finding gold in the rivers much easier and the Commodore wants the formula before the brothers kills him. Eli just doesn't find that sporting. Along the way they encounter a weeping man, a witch, a grizzly bear, and various people who mean them harm. They get some money and Eli gives some away, usually to any woman who is kind to him. In the end, they manage to lose everything they have stolen, accumulated and saved in a series of unfortunate events, and go home to ...mother! The dialog is reminiscent of Robert Parker's Virgil Cole series (Appaloosa, Resolution, and Brimstone) or perhaps Charles Portis' True Grit, but Eli and Charlie are uniquely their own characters.

Robopocalypse

A slight departure from my usual reading path, although I have been a fan of other sci fi with heavy robot presence (e.g., Asimov) in my youth. This one was recommended on the Powell's Daily Dose blog so I made the leap. Humankind's attempts to create artificial intelligence succeed so well that the creation, which calls itself Archos, outsmarts and escapes its makers and takes over all "smart" technology--from cars to guided missiles to talking dolls--in a concerted effort to get the upper hand. Humans, trusting blindly in their technology, are exterminated by the billions and millions more are placed in "forced labor" camps where they help to build ever-evolving weapons against humanity or are experimented upon in order to find the ideal combination of human and machine.
The book starts at the end, so we know at least some of the humans survive. From various people's viewpoints we read about the early incidents--pre "zero hour"--that alert some to the potential problems, followed by accounts of the time when all the machines turn again humans, and then the "New War," when pockets of resistance fight back. Some of Archos' enemies will turn out to be the hybrid beings he has created--still partly human but with "enhanced" functionality. Others are the original humanoid robots that become "self-aware" and don't want to be controlled by a master robot anymore than they want to be controlled by humans. Other "heroes" are scientists, soldiers, or just those who figure out how to survive and help others survive. An engrossing tale by Daniel H. Wilson, who has a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon and, therefore, delivers a believable alternative future.

The Man with the Baltic Stare

This is the 4th of the "Inspector O" series by the pseudonymous James Church and it is as enigmatic as the previous three. Some characters we thought were dead reappear and some new dyanamics are in play. O has apparently gone to live the life of a hermit on a mountain top, crafting wooden toys, when he is brought unwillingly back into play to "solve" a murder in Macau. Someone very high up in the Korean government is all but convicted of murdering a prostitute and O is told to direct attention away from him as prime suspect. It is never entirely clear who the suspect is, but it sounds like the successor to head North Korea, only he is never found. One of the men pulling the strings is a major from South Korea who believes the two countries will be reconciled or at least ruled jointly by the south. But then the Chinese also want to move in as does organized crime. I have never been able to completely follow how O comes up with the solutions to these murky messes he is handed, but I never tire of getting to know O better as he navigates the minefield that is life in North Korea.
Reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.