Science fiction is a big genre, with room for just about everyone. Today, I'd like to focus on modern noir set in orbit, whether around Earth or someplace else.
The title of Anthony O'Neill's The Dark Side refers to Earth's moon, where lies the territory of Purgatory and its capital, Sin. Damien Justus is the new police sergeant there, and is quickly up to his holster in bloody mayhem and leading an apathetic team. This all seems related to the power struggle between Fletcher Brass, founder of Sin (and bearing no small resemblance to a certain presidential candidate), and his ambitious daughter, QT. Not far away, an android loaded with the Brass Code, a compendium of maxims that would make Ayn Rand herself smirk and squirm by turns, has not had his inhibitors turned on, leading to actions that would make even Ms. Rand blanch. The android is headed towards Sin. Violent, tricky, and often quite funny, this propulsive book is a wild ride in a Long Range Vehicle.
Dave Crowell and Alan Brindos are operatives of the Network Intelligence Organization, hunting down evildoers throughout the galaxy in The Ultra Thin Man by Peter Swenson. They are tasked with finding a terrorist leader after his organization crashes a moon into its planet. Or was it terrorists after all? The two gumshoes quickly find themselves at the center of a conspiracy to frame them for treason, one involving "thin man" clones that substitute for genuine individuals. This is another, fast-paced, suspenseful tale, focusing on interplanetary intrigue.
Warren Hammond has written a set of books, starting with KOP, that imagines a world not terribly unlike our own, with the police on the take and nothing out of bounds in order to obtain power. Whether it's saving the population of the planet Lagarto from being enslaved to stopping a serial killer, Juno Mozambe ricochets from one mess to another, trying to do the right thing where the right thing is often a crime. Gritty world-building is what makes this series stand out.
So, who do you like for those who go down those mean wormholes? I have a feeling I have just scratched the surface. Let us know in the comments.
Add a comment to: Noir in Space