TITANIUM NOIR By Nick Harkaway

There have been plenty of Science Fiction Private Eyes ( here’s a list of 55 of them ). Add to that number Cal Sounder who specializes in cases involving Titans. Titans are humans who have taken the wonder drug T7 that not only cures most diseases and injuries, it extends the Life of the beneficiary to near-immortal levels.



The police have called Cal Sounder in when a Titan is found dead in his apartment from a gunshot wound. Suicide…or murder? Sounder decides it’s murder and undertakes his wild investigation: “…a scientist murdered under an alias, a cage match, a gunshot wound, a dead lounge singer, a dead police officer, an exploded police station, stolen internal organs containing encrypted nuclear grade kompromat, and my ex-girlfriends cousin….mutliated, bleeding, and pissed off on my office carpet.” (p. 191) As you see, a lot happens in Titanium Noir.



The future with genetically enhanced Titans is not a pleasant place. If you can basically live forever, you have plenty of ways to become immensely rich. And corrupt. Cal Sounder takes a lot of punishment from various suspects in Titanium Noir , but also delivers his share of violence. If you’re a fan of noir and SF, this blend may agree with you. Are you fan of noir? GRADE: B