ORP: KW Jeter’s “Noir” part 1

Before I move on to Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums”, I thought I’d jump into KW Jeter’s novel, “Noir”. The book has been sitting on my shelf for awhile and since I have enjoyed the cyberpunk subgenre for some time since discovering William Gibson, it was time. I’m still on mind-candy mode in my reading projects before I get back into Dostoevsky’s short stories for my Literary Group for the fall quarter. Another thing that encouraged me to try this author is that when I was reading Philip K. Dick’s biography I noted that he used to encourage younger writers and KWJ was in a circle of writers that spent some time with him. Critical acclaim seems to be positive for Mr. Jeter, so I shouldn’t be disappointed.

The setting of the book is the semi-near future after the Pacific becomes metaphorically an inland sea do to trade, development of Asia, etc. The population has grown and the cities around the Pacific have become so huge that they run into each other and the Pacific Rim connection of cities all gloss together (and are called the Gloss). This story has all the elements of cyberpunk—huge intrusive Mega-corporations, large dichotomies in living conditions between the average poor person and the elite with their corporate minions. Add to this high tech, suspense, industrial murder and espionage, and mercenaries and—you get the picture.

Inside of this setting, the protagonist lives in a film noir world because of the simulation overlays implanted on his eyes. Since I like film noir, I am really digging this book, plus I like high tech and computers, so this is a cool book. The last time my time machine worked I visited 1932, so I like living in the fiction of that era sometimes.