[.ca] Noir (ISBN 2290327298)

From Amazon.com:
Imagine a fast-moving computer game set in the black-and-white environment of a 1940s detective movie and you'll begin to get some idea of the mixed metaphors that fill the air in K.W. Jeter's difficult but ultimately rewarding new futuristic thriller. Jeter, who also writes a series of novels based on the popular Blade Runner film about apocalyptic Los Angeles, centers Noir in that same city, now a dark jewel of the dominant Pacific Rim. A detective named McNihil (yes, you got it) has had his eyes surgically altered so that everything looks like an early Bogart movie to him. "Gray newspapers with significant headlines--'Dewey Defeats Truman,''Pearl Harbor Bombed'--moldered in the gutters, or were nudged along the broken sidewalks by the same night wind that cut through McNihil's jacket," Jeter writes about the scene of a plane crash where the detective has been summoned by a corporate villain. A top young executive has been murdered, and McNihil is arm-twisted into tracking down the dead man's missing "prowler"--a computer simulation that roams the world like an electronic ghost. Aided by a young woman called November, whose fingertips are alive with lethal magnetic currents, McNihil brings his--and Jeter's--unique noir vision to bear on a world that for all its weirdness is the ultimately believable extension of our present-day nightmares. --Dick Adler

Why, oh why?:
If you don't care about the issues of copyright infringement, don't read this book. The main character's job is to hunt down, catch, and capture copyright infringers. Once captured, the person is reduced to the minimum brain/spinal matter needed to sustain awareness, then implanted into the device of the copyright holder's desire. Like a toaster or stereo speak cables. The whole book merely stands a forum for the author to get his point across that he hates copyright infringers. The characters, plot, and setting are all a sideshow. At several points, the main character spouts several pages of diatribe (to himself, no less) about the evils of copyright infringement and how it almost ruined the world. Give me a break! The book seemed promising. I especially liked the whole debt culture aspect of the book and how it interacts with death. In addition, the author's take on religion is cynical and mean. I like that. However, given that the plot is meaningless, it doesn't make too much sense, and the dialog is not so good. The author is also quite descriptive, often coming back and describing the same things repeatedly in mind-numbing and irrelevant detail. Save the few precious hours of your life that it would take to read this book and read something good. If you decide to go ahead anyway, I'll give you my copy for one US penny (+ shipping...) (review updated) Someone took me up on my offer.

Stylish:
Noir is cool. It has atmosphere and style and enough substance to back it up. The book sparkles with gripping visuals, betrayal, a very submerged streak of romanticism in the lead and a nasty but fun sense of humor. In fact it's very...well, noir-ish. The first chapter is hard to get through, disconnected and odd and reading like a fever dream. The story coheres quickly as you move onwards however, and it ties in neatly with the rest of the book. Noir might appeal to fans of Philip K. Dick or Steve Aylett (Although Noir's story is clearer than most of their's. Once the final revelations are pulled up the plot isn't actually terribly complex, but the ideas and characters Jeter used to move it along are interesting -- cynical and snappy and entertaining). Noir has a strange ring of truth to it. The little jabs and philosophies Jeter brings out aren't completely new but pertinent all the same. Set within a slightly quirky cyberpunk background, it's a welcome change of pace from most of the sci-fi out there.

Ideas seem more important here.......:
Ok, before I do any criticizing let me just say that I really enjoyed reading Noir. The setting that the story takes place in, an urban nightmare where even ideas are commodified, was interesting and fairly fleshed out. The ideas that Jeter puts forth are thought-provoking and insightful. However, Noir seems to rely too heavily on the ideas of copyright infringement and rampant postmodernism to really get any kind of story rolling. Apparently, the author had an ax to grind regarding copyrighting, and he used this book to vent. The characters are interesting, but seem more like characatures used to express certain predictions of our future rather than anything believable. Also, Jeter tends to only bring certain aspects of what`s going on to the reader`s attention, and then sometimes in a haphazard, confused sort of way. The whole theme of noir came out a couple of times, but was then put away and seemingly forgotten. Had there been a coherent, strong plot driving things, the book would have been a lot better. Overall, it`s an interesting read. It did make me think about certain things, but it also left me wanting more of a story. Noir takes after the works of Burroughs and Aylett who sacrifice plot and characterization for general atmosphere and ideas. I recommend it, but not to those looking for a deep plot.

Deeper than it looks:
This book, carrying on in the tradition of Philip K Dick, raises philosophical questions about corporate greed, human perversion, what is real, and what it really means to be human. Jeter imagines a future where "sanctioned terrorism" has become the norm as DynaZauber corporation relentlessly pursues copyright violators and debtors beyond life into an artificially sustained after-death existence. DynaZauber's secret agenda is to create the perfect addiction (infinite consumer demand, zero product cost) and get everyone hooked. ("They tried it before, with the whole push to get people on the telecommunications wire, to have them value bits of information as much or more than the atoms of the real world, have them pay to be mesmerized by the pretty colored lights on their computer screens.") Dyna = power, zauber = charm (magic spell). This book deserves to be read closely as a scathing indictment of cyber-culture and a soul-searing look at the terrifying post-human aspirations of the technocrats. Anyone who criticizes Jeter for using Philip K Dick's FAMOUS quote about reality being that which "doesn't go away when you stop believing in it" without attribution is missing the point. This book is deeply and fiercely ironic, and there is more here than meets the eye.

A Dip Into the DARKSIDE:
In NOIR by K.W. Jeter the author dishes up a new slice of reality-one seen through the cyber-fixed eyes of his "asp head" character McNihil. McNihil prefers the noir reality to the world of neurotechnology, brain manipulation, others were forced to endure. The work he has done on his vision permits him to see a world with noir (black & white) vision. Noir vision appears to win out in the end. As one character described it, "Maybe the old movies had finally leaked out from McNihil's private universe to the world at large so everyone could see them at last the way he did." Using a hero who can't really be killed off does present an alternate reality that no doubt Jeter's real life hero, Philip K. Dick, would enjoy. In fact Jeter uses one of Dick's best lines, "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away," without attribution. Perhaps since continuing the Blade Runner novels Jeter sees their identities as blurred together. Jeter creates his own Alice down the cyberspace, x-rated rabbit hole he calls the Wedge World. The capitalistic villain of the story attempts to turn the Wedge World into a vector pool, where a "vector" disease will infect the minds of all those who come a lusting after sex. McNihil's noir vision allows him to avoid this trap but not without paying the ultimate price. This experimental genre seems to ask the question: Can you unwind a story with a hero who emerges from a pure, nihilistic womb? Or to put it another way can the reader identify with a hero who not only has a fetish for murder but for making audio cables out of human spines (Reminiscent of Hitler's human skin lamp shades). How about a hero who speaks with the dead and even narrates the story from his own deceased tongue? The speaking dead could have been a literary device to assure the reader he wasn't talking about flesh and blood people, rather in metaphors with which to spotlight reality's riddles.