Noir [Hardcover]

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.

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.

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.