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Unholy Domain, by Dan Ronco

Unholy Domain
by Dan Ronco
Künati, 2008

http://danronco.com

 

FQuDN: Fully Qualified unholy Domain Name

 

Let's input data snatched from the underground about Dan Ronco's second novel, Unholy Domain, and process it through:

Critical Mick's Patented Techno-Thrilla Checklist

Critical Mick consideres DanRonco's novel, Unholy Domain.
Robots and Lasers?
Check!Check!
Psychotic Madmen Bent on World Domination?
Check!
Plucky hero who never wanted to be involved?
Check!
Government Agencies? Shady Mafia Types?
Check!Check!
High Body Count?
Check!
Horrendously Expensive Shit Blowing Up?
Check!

 

Action Spanning the Globe?
Check!

 

Redhead Love Interest?
Check!

 

Cautionary Moral?
Check!

Techno-Thrilla likelihood: 100%


Dispatching SIA (Semi-Intelligent Agent)....

MISSION: Evaluate Unholy Domain and add its parameters to database of materials reviewed.

Target located. Hardback acquired and delivered to Dublin installation.

READING NOW....

READING COMPLETED.

ANALYSIS:
 
Potted plot processed based on pre-existing cases files...

Composition
Element
Description
.16
Johnny Mnemonic was Keanu Reeves' cyberpunk flick prior to The Matrix.  I really dug it, back in 1995.  The world of Dan Ronco's Unholy Domain has similar elements that I probably would have dug in 1995.

Johnny Mnemonic

Unholy Domain is set in a near-future America in which certain technologies have advanced beyond all expectation. Conditions for the subjuctated vast majority of the population have regressed into a deep and desperate recession.

.10
The Godfather. Dan Ronco's novel Unholy Domain features not only robots and lasers, but Mafia characters doing Mafia things.

The Godfather

The novel opens with a well-armed, well-equipped band in their illicit meeting with representatives of the Mafia. Through collaboration with the agents of organized crime, some diabolical business is about to go down.
Mob Boss Maria Vitullo, the oldest child of New Jersey's Vitullo crime family, wears a revealing dress that draws attention to her generous cleavage! Maria Vitullo is a hottie.

.06
Dan Ronco's novel, Unholy Domain, introduces android children like in Spielberg's crap movie, A.I. - Artificial Intelligence.

A.I. - Artificial Intelligence

The secert comodity that the illegal high-tech band want the Mafia to distribute is an astoundingly lifelike android named Sarah. Sarah is truly an enormous advancement over commonplace domestic robots. But why is the the Domain, a clandestine organization that creates most of 2022's illegal technology, willing to supply the Mob with four million Sarah bots free of charge?

.05
There are hard-coded assurances that the robots in Unholy Domain will never attack humans.... which, as in I, Robot, guarantees that they eventually will.

I, Robot

"Hey, wait! Can these new robots whack people?" ask the Mafia.
"Oh no! They are programmed to be incapable of attacking humans. Now go put one in every important home...." smile the Domain.
The countdown to the inevitable android insurrection begins.

.11
Foxy Brown. Nuf Said.

Foxy Brown

Suddenly a sexy young black chick with a tall, athletic body fires a barrage of bullets, killing many of the Technos before they could pull their laser pistols. "Abomination!" Moesha Jefferson kisses the amulet hanging from her neck and, basically, it's all-out war. It ain't over until one side is completely wiped out.

.12
This is a picture of Jimmy Swaggart, representative of all scandal-ridden televangelists. Dan Ronco's novel Unholy Domain features an evil sexually-deviant TV evangelist fraud.

Sexually Deviant Televangelists Controling the Fanatical Devotion of Millions.

Moesha Jefferson is commander of the Army of God, the military wing of First Minister Adam Jordan's Church of Natural Humans. He's a Southern televangelist with a deep hatred of technology and a whole lot of guns. Conforming to popular media's stereotypical televangelist, Jordan's whole ministry is a complete fraud. Adam Jordan spends Unholy Domain engaging in deviant sex, preaching hate, and aiming to kill the Mafia, the Technos (their term for The Domain) and our hero.

.19
Keanu Reeves again in The Matrix. Dan Ronco's young cyberpunk hero has, like Neo, a unique ability to interact with the supermachines.

The Matrix

Protaganist David Brown is the son of the hero from Dan Ronco's earlier novel, PeaceMaker. Ray Brown is, in 2022, regarded as the scumbag who dropped a Blue Screen of Death on Western Civilization. David awakes from shagging some chick, flips the bird to the angry mob of protesters hurling rocks through his University dorm windows, and checks his email. There's a strange message from his father Ray, dead ten years now. "Son, if you are seeing this then my enemies have won, I've been framed and the world is in the shitter. Go out and clear my name, discovering your unique, miraculous gifts along the way. I bet your quest for the truth will bring the baddies to ruin and save all mankind!"
Dan Ronco's young cyberpunk hero has, like Neo, a unique ability to interact with the supermachines. Can he avoid both The Domain and the Army of God? And, oh yeah, and these inconsequential things called the FBI and the police?

.08
Forbidden

DoubleD

To balance the "Foxy Brown" hotness of the Church of Natural Humans' Moesha Jefferson, the Domain unleashes an assassain named Darlene Duboski. "The body of a porn star, but one of our best agents." Known as DoubleD, she and her handcuffs pursue David and battle Army of God agents until the inevitable, climactic catfight.

.03
Lisa Burke is such a wonderful beauty that she would appear on a TV news station, even if she did not work for one. Ay yi yi! Yikes! Man! Lisa Burke!  Wow. Breaking news!  Critical Mick really likes her a lot.

Lisa Burke

Whenever there is an infodump, introduction or commenatry about the world of Unholy Domain, newshottie Daphne Hayden appears in holographic glory and delivers the goods. Like Sky's wonderful Lisa Burke, the fictitious Daphne Hayden lifts spirits, even of men of sixty-three.

.10

Previously Uncategorized

The remaining elements of Dan Ronco's second novel, Unholy Domain, are original and uncatalogued.

Manual Analysis:

Like his fellow Künati scribe Peter Clennott, Dan Ronco has written an all-action thriller that aims to be smarter than its shelfmates. Unholy Domain precognates "the oncoming clash between religion and technology concerning what it means to be human," according to Ronco's July 2008 interview with Simon Barrett.

Dan Ronco's Unholy Domain among a selection of Critcal Mick's religious titles and a book on Windows 2003 Domain Controllers.

While it's a fast, engaging read, the novel doesn't make any important statement in that philosophical arguement. For one, many elements are implausible. Psychotic demagogue Adam Jordan's "Church of Natural Humans" has a ten-foot statue of Jesus in its entranceway, but otherwise has nothing to do with Christianity. His organization makes a fun bunch of baddies, but they are not spokespeople for Religion. They cannot contribute to a serious dialogue about the human soul any more than can the henchmen of a James Bond supervillain.

The visionaries of technology against whom Adam Jordan and Moesha Jefferson fight would have been more interesting if their technologies had been more original. On the third page, trillions of nanobots are ejaculated on the reader. Man! I hate nanobots! An interesting idea when first featured on Star Trek: The Next Generation around 1992, these microscopic robots have been hashed and rehashed into everything these days. Ugh! Having completely taken over science fiction, I understand that 2009 will even see big campaigns for Coke Nano and Pepsi Nano Max. If I want something smalll that actually has interesting flavor, I'll sample that new microbrew, thanks.

(Overcoming my nanobot prejudice, I must concede that Ronco's high-tech method of detecting intruders was fresh, and, research shows, plausible. If it had been bionic flies scanning the area rather than nanobots, I'd be buzzing.)

As a back-and-forth chase-and-conspiracy adventure, Unholy Domain is enjoyable. The 340 pages pass in a few evenings- or, better yet, on a single long plane journey. David ends the story close to where readers will forecast, but his journey zigs an interesting course (around many, many potholes) and there's a twist at the end. Plus, one of the chicks who falls instantly for him is an absolute hottie!

Mick, Enjoy the read, Dan Ronco. I did, and would recommend Unholy Domain as a good airplane book.

I like hotties. Except when my reviews have angered them and they are coming at me with automatic weapons.

Windows NT domains are truly unholy.

Computer says: Liklihood that a Terminate order will be issued against Critial Mick: 91%
RECOMMENDATION: Scan all aproaching women for Double D.

And now for an important disclaimer from Critical Mick

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2008 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.


This Page Was Last Updated On 10 November, 2008.

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