THE BODY SCOUT by Lincoln Michel – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel
Published by Orbit on September 21 2021
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 368
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Cyberpunk noir and baseball collide in this fast-paced, thoroughly entertaining sci-fi mystery.

Is science fiction kicking ass this year, or am I just choosing the right books to read? Either way, I keep discovering amazing new SF authors, and I’ve just added Lincoln Michel to that list. The Body Scout was so much fun and so well written, and it’s one of those stories that I hated to see end. It’s an intriguing murder mystery set far in a future where body upgrades are the norm, animals are extinct, and baseball teams are owned by big pharma companies. If you’re a fan of Dan Stout’s The Carter Archives, you’ll probably love this, because it’s got a similar punchy noir vibe.

Kobo is a biopharm scout living in New York, paid to find cutting edge scientists to work for the companies who develop the latest drugs and treatments for the nation’s top baseball stars. Kobo himself used to play in the Cyber League, until it went under, that is. Now he’s obsessed with improving his own body by taking out loans for various surgeries and body part replacements, but his jobs are drying up and he’s in debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars to Sunny Day Healthcare Loans.

Kobo’s adoptive brother Julio Julio “JJ” Zunz is the star player for the Monsanto Mets, but one day Kobo is watching a game in a bar when Zunz drops dead at the plate, his death caught on camera for the world to see. Monsanto is calling it a tragedy, but Kobo thinks his friend was murdered. Kobo is shocked when the Mouth—the CEO of the Monsanto Mets—hires him to investigate Zunz’s death, promising to erase all his debt if he can pin the responsibility on the Mets rival team, the Pyramid Pharmaceuticals Sphinxes.

But once Kobo starts digging into Zunz’s last days, he discovers a tangled mystery involving a rival baseball team, a mad doctor, and illegal cloning. With help from his deaf ex-lover Dolores and a precocious twelve-year-old Edenist named Lila, Kobo must figure out who is responsible for Zunz’s murder, avoid a pair of nasty loan sharks named Brenda and Wanda, and delve into the secrets of the Janus Club and how it might relate to Zunz’s demise, all before the end of the World Series.

I really had fun with Lincoln Michel’s world. Like many SF books these days, the future is pretty bleak. Climate change has decimated the animal world and now odd creatures called “zootech” are made in laboratories. Advanced methods of replacing lost body parts and internal organs have become big business, and most people have at least one upgrade. And best of all, big league baseball teams are now owned by pharmaceutical companies who compete for championships by developing the best drugs to keep their players in top form. I loved the team names, like the Monsanto Mets, or the BodyMore Inc. Orioles. When Kobo played for the Cyber League, he was with the Boston Red Sockets. I mean, how can you not love that?? The combination of futuristic tech and baseball was so refreshing, and I’m not even a sports fan!

You can tell Michel had fun creating his world, there are so many awesome futuristic touches. For example, Kobo’s friend Dolores is deaf, but instead of fixing that deafness with a medical procedure, she decides to upgrade her other senses instead—like her cybernetic eye. She wears a pair of goggles that somehow translate speech into sign language so she can “hear” and communicate with others. I’m not sure exactly how that worked but it was pretty cool! One of my other favorite elements was that advances in cloning technology have led to Neanderthals being integrated into society, and in this story they’re the muscle of the big pharma companies. 

The main mystery—Kobo trying to figure out what happened to Zunz—is solid and well developed. I love that the Mouth has given Kobo a limited amount of time to solve the mystery, which drives the pacing and keeps the story hopping along. Kobo’s path to the truth is anything but smooth, though, and Michel throws in plenty of twists and surprises, not to mention danger, because when you mess with the Monsanto Mets and their nefarious plans for the future, you’re risking not only your neck but all your other body parts.

As much as I loved the worldbuilding and the plot, though, it was the characters who really won me over. The story is told in first person from Kobo’s point of view, so the reader really gets to know him and understand his motivations. Kobo lost an arm as a child when his apartment building collapsed, and now he has a cybernetic arm that he’s quite proud of. Unfortunately, he’s also addicted to body upgrades and keeps a running list of the improvements he’s determined to get one day, just as soon as he can pay off his current loan. Kobo goes through a lot in this book: getting beat up, trying to avoid loan sharks, and much more, but his loyalty to Zunz carries him through it all, as he’s determined to get justice for his death.

Then we have two of my other favorite characters, Dolores and Lila. Dolores is a scout for a rival baseball team, but she and Kobo still hang out together every now and then. Dolores was such a great character: smart and funny but also tough as nails and much more interested in keeping her job than helping Kobo. I loved that Michel made her deaf but gave her the tech to overcome that challenge. Lila, or “Nails” as she’s called by her fellow Edenists, is an angry twelve-year-old with a big secret that changes the course of the story, and I fell in love with her smartass personality. Michel’s dialog is so good, even the more unsavory characters, like Natasha the Neanderthal or the Mouth come across as entertaining. 

The author adds a nice layer of nostalgia to his tale, evoking the joys of childhood baseball, the good old days before big pharma swept in and changed the game. Michel sets his story in New York, and his love for the city shines through as well. Some weird shit happens near the end that turned the story into a sort of mad caper, and there are plenty of really well done action scenes–one memorable one takes place in Kobo’s apartment. The story ends on a feel-good note, with just about everything resolved. And yet I feel like maybe there’s more to the story. The Body Scout isn’t listed as the start to a series, but it could easily become one, or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Baseball fans will certainly find a lot to love here, but even if you aren’t a sports fanatic, you’ll probably love Lincoln Michel’s gritty future and prickly but loveable characters. 

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.