Rating: 
Summary: Juicer Noir
Review: A good, funny mystery. Without spoiling anything, I can say Vukcevich gives the reader compulsive tap dancing, juicer-pushing Russians, some original virtual reality, and a neon "TOFU" sign flashing outside the detective's office. He does a great job with the detective's multiple personalities (which could not have been easy). The novel isn't too "technical" at all, nor is its appeal limited to the computer geek set. My only complaint is with a few of the secondary characters, who seemed a little two-dimensional and wavering. I expect this will improve with future novels (which I eagerly await). I also wish Vukcevich had pushed the boundaries a bit more. The novel toys with surreal comedy in some wonderful moments, but always comes back down to standard mystery themes. Overall, a very promising first novel well worth the price. Vukcevich is an author to watch, if not a name to pronounce.
Rating:
Summary: Juicer Noir
Review: A good, funny mystery. Without spoiling anything, I can say Vukcevich gives the reader compulsive tap dancing, juicer-pushing Russians, some original virtual reality, and a neon "TOFU" sign flashing outside the detective's office. He does a great job with the detective's multiple personalities (which could not have been easy). The novel isn't too "technical" at all, nor is its appeal limited to the computer geek set. My only complaint is with a few of the secondary characters, who seemed a little two-dimensional and wavering. I expect this will improve with future novels (which I eagerly await). I also wish Vukcevich had pushed the boundaries a bit more. The novel toys with surreal comedy in some wonderful moments, but always comes back down to standard mystery themes. Overall, a very promising first novel well worth the price. Vukcevich is an author to watch, if not a name to pronounce.
Rating: 
Summary: Rubbish
Review: From time to time, Ray Vukcevich's "Man of Maybe Half-a-Dozen Faces" pops up on my Amazon.com recommendations list. It sounded interesting and funny; and had the benefit of having been compared to Lethem's "Gun, With Occasional Music". I decided to try it.I wish I hadn't. It might still seem interesting and funny if I hadn't gone and ruined everything by reading it. Brian Howells, the protagonist in this erstwhile comedic mystery is a disturbed fellow who dresses up in different outfits in order to a) disguise himself while sleuthing, and b) give voice to his different personalities, such as Tag, "The Average Guy", Dennis, the computer expert and Lulu. He also is addicted to tap-dancing and has no friends other than those he consults over the chat rooms and Internet news groups. He's hired to track down a killer who murders bad documentalists, those who produce incomprehensible computer manuals. "Who am I and what do I want with you?" shouts Brian upon meeting his newest client. This pretty much sets the tone for the whole novel - it's funny, but pretty inane. What client would continue and hire someone so obviously disoriented and mentally ill? The only way I was able to make sense of this book and not to throw it across the room was to imagine it taking place in an alternate universe, one where our accepted definitions of Multiple-Personality Disorder don't apply and where illicit tap-dancing parlors exist like turn-of-the-century opium dens. In the end, that just wasn't enough. Vukcevich thinks himself way to cute and clever, but his story just isn't smart enough to carry one through the inconsistencies and annoyances of his narrative. The next time it pops up as a recommendations, I think I'll just click "Not Interested" and move on.
Rating:
Summary: Rubbish
Review: From time to time, Ray Vukcevich's "Man of Maybe Half-a-Dozen Faces" pops up on my Amazon.com recommendations list. It sounded interesting and funny; and had the benefit of having been compared to Lethem's "Gun, With Occasional Music". I decided to try it. I wish I hadn't. It might still seem interesting and funny if I hadn't gone and ruined everything by reading it. Brian Howells, the protagonist in this erstwhile comedic mystery is a disturbed fellow who dresses up in different outfits in order to a) disguise himself while sleuthing, and b) give voice to his different personalities, such as Tag, "The Average Guy", Dennis, the computer expert and Lulu. He also is addicted to tap-dancing and has no friends other than those he consults over the chat rooms and Internet news groups. He's hired to track down a killer who murders bad documentalists, those who produce incomprehensible computer manuals. "Who am I and what do I want with you?" shouts Brian upon meeting his newest client. This pretty much sets the tone for the whole novel - it's funny, but pretty inane. What client would continue and hire someone so obviously disoriented and mentally ill? The only way I was able to make sense of this book and not to throw it across the room was to imagine it taking place in an alternate universe, one where our accepted definitions of Multiple-Personality Disorder don't apply and where illicit tap-dancing parlors exist like turn-of-the-century opium dens. In the end, that just wasn't enough. Vukcevich thinks himself way to cute and clever, but his story just isn't smart enough to carry one through the inconsistencies and annoyances of his narrative. The next time it pops up as a recommendations, I think I'll just click "Not Interested" and move on.
Rating:
Summary: Wacky and Fun
Review: kylight Howells, Private Investigator, isn't exactly a split-personality. . . He's more of a multi-personality. Sky has several facets of himself which he becomes by donning various disguises. Dennis, for example, is a computer nerd and math expert and just by wearing Dennis' glasses, Sky can solve complex mathematical problems and break into computers. These six personalities are very handy for a detective and Sky wears them all--including Lulu--with an ease that is nearly scary.
Sometimes he thinks he might be overdoing it a bit, but the multi-personality thing takes back burner to his real problem--tap-dancing. Yes, Sky is a problem dancer, and hasn't been attending his meetings regularly. At any moment, with his resistance this low, he could duck into an all night karaoke tap club and--well, let's just say that the results wouldn't be pretty.
On top of it all, he's got work to do. He's trailing his high school nemesis to see if he's cheating on his wife and while still in the middle of this case, a lovely blonde bombshell of a computer programmer needs help with a murder case. Seems that some disgruntled nerd is killing computer program "documentalists". Her brother is a prime suspect and she wants to prove his innocence and find the real killer. Soon the killer becomes a serial killer and Sky--and the rest of him--must find out the whys and whos.
This is a very witty novel, with some sidesplitting read-out-loud happenings (the first use of the juicer, for instance, still makes me laugh). The mystery is not nearly as interesting as Sky's detecting and the solving of the case was a bit lame. Despite all that, I enjoyed it, passed in on to Stoney and refer it to anyone who likes their mystery to be slightly wacky and a whole lot of fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Good-natured and absorbing read
Review: On the face of it (or the dust jacket) this might easily have turned into a "gimmick" book, what with tap-dancing twelve-step programs, multiple personalities, and eboards providing real-time commentary on events as they unfold. Vukcevich avoids that trap, however. The technical underpinnings of his novel are flawless, and each and every potential "gimmick" fully supports its piece of the plot mechanics. Nothing is thrown away here, nothing is wasted, and it all comes together in the end without straining credulity or over-burdening one's suspension of disbelief. I haven't had so much fun with a novel since I read Daniel Pinkwater's books about the Snark-out Boys.
Rating:
Summary: The MAN of MAYBE HALF-A-DOZEN FACES
Review: On the face of it (or the dust jacket) this might easily have turned into a "gimmick" book, what with tap-dancing twelve-step programs, multiple personalities, and eboards providing real-time commentary on events as they unfold. Vukcevich avoids that trap, however. The technical underpinnings of his novel are flawless, and each and every potential "gimmick" fully supports its piece of the plot mechanics. Nothing is thrown away here, nothing is wasted, and it all comes together in the end without straining credulity or over-burdening one's suspension of disbelief. I haven't had so much fun with a novel since I read Daniel Pinkwater's books about the Snark-out Boys.
Rating:
Summary: Douglas Adams meets, um, Ray Vukcevich
Review: Ray Vukcevich's fiction is so off the wall it's astonishing. Hilarious, outrageous, ingenious fun.
Rating:
Summary: A winner!
Review: This book contains some of the weirdest, wackiest, cops, crooks and gumshoes you will ever meet. Vukcevich populates his vision of Eugene, Oregon, with characters you can't ignore. I can't say this is a book you can't put down, because you do - you want to savor the gems he presents to you before moving on. My only complaint? It was over way too soon. I am now waiting for the further adventures of Howells, et al. In the meantime, I'll have to content myself with Mr. Vukcevich's short fiction.
Rating:
Summary: very unique, really entertaining, and well-written
Review: This is an incredibly ingenious and quite funny novel. It's one of my favorites. Its uniqueness would probably be appealing to many. I've read quite a bit of critically acclaimed science fiction over the years (including Maureen McHugh's 'The Lincoln Train', 'China Mountain Zhang', and 'Nekropolis', as well as Amitav Ghosh's 'The Calcutta Chromosome') and enjoyed this novel just as much, and possibly more, than those, which are pretty impressive but usually not as inventive! It's also really refreshing to discover some science fiction with a sense of humor, since much of the field tends to be rather "doom and gloom" or horror-themed.
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