Credit: Orbit Books

FROM THE TIME that robot cop Version 43 steps onto the criminal-run planet Belladonna, determined to clean it up for good, I was hooked. British novelist and screenwriter Philip Palmer writes with such wit and energy that it is evident from the first page that this is going to be a tightly wound adventure.

There is only a 50% chance of surviving the quantum teleportation to Belladonna, and so only the extremely desperate and the deranged are willing to make the trip. Bursting with action, hard science, murder and corruption, Version 43 follows the tough and often unlikable robot, which the novel is named after, as his body is destroyed over and over again but his determination to straighten out Belladonna endures.

While the novel deals with some serious issues, such as what it means to be human and whether robots can feel emotion, there is constant humour and imagination to keep the story lively. This is only Palmer's third novel, but the pages are bursting with energy and you won't be able to put the book down. Version 43 is set in the same universe as Palmer's first two novels but can definitely be read as a stand-alone novel.