My reactions to reading this novel in 1999. Spoilers follow.

An uneasy and not totally successful amalgam of satire (specifically of what, I suppose, some cyberpunk, though Jeter doesn’t use the term, would call corporate capitalism), horror, and straight sf.

Jeter was a friend of Phillip K. Dick and wrote, in two novels, sequels to Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the movie Blade Runner, and this friendship and work shows up here. There is the characteristic confusion of humans and their simulacra in the prowlers who evidently serve, in Jeter’s future, as risk-free sexual surrogates who gather sexual experiences in the Wedge and download into human minds. Unlikeable protagonist McNihil (whose name, a play on nihilism, is the first clue to the satirical nature of the narrative) is, like Dick, an opera buff. German abounds, including an explanation as to the derivation of McNihil’s old job title – asphead (a German pun on ASCAP – whose copyrights McNihil ruthlessly enforces -- translated back to English). A sort of Dick like (in the sense of a largely ignored prolific author of paperbacks and lover of music) author, and idol of McNihil shows up in Turbiner. (Jeter wryly notes that authors were particularly “mean bastards” in regard to copyrights). Turbiner, after he betrays McNihil, lectures the latter that betrayal is the very essence of the noir world McNihil reads about in Turbiner’s novels or sees through his modified eyes which turn the world into a film noir.

There’s a lot to like in the novel. My favorite section is the middle section where the origin of the asp-heads is detailed via McNihil’s pursuit of a small time book pirate and the preparation of the resulting trophy. The information economy did, in this future, largely come to place. As a result, intellectual property theft is viewed as literally killing people by removing their livelihood. Therefore, death is a fitting punishment. (McNihil, in his point by point review of the origin of aspheads, notes that even in the 20th Century there was the phrase: “There’s a hardware solution to intellectual property theft. It’s called a .357 magnum.”) Actually it’s decided that death is too good and too quick for pirates. Their consciousness is preserved by having their neural network incorporated in various devices. (Turbiner likes to use stripped down spinal cords for speaker wire.)

This sounds like a cyberpunk notion, but, in other parts of the novel, Jeter takes a swipe at such hacker/information economy/internet cliches as information wanting to be free (McNihil destroys a nest of such net hippies) or the future economy being based on information. Villain Harrisch sneers at the notion stating that information can be distorted but atoms – and the wealth they represent – endure. Still, his novel is chock full of the high-tech, low-life that characterizes cyberpunk. Jeter, like William Gibson, is enamored of the biochemistery of the brain. This is a world ruled by corporations on the Pacific Rim (the unexplained Noh-flies prevent air travel so a railroad runs the complete circuit – Arctic to Antarctica – of the Pacific Rim). Jeter has some wonderful bits in his anti-capitalist satire: the revived, almost zombie-like “indebted” – humans brought back from the dead to varying extants to pay their bills (some are little more than big, cockroach like garbage scavengers with ads on their shells); a pervasive management style modeled on pimps dominating prostitutes (sex workers are sometimes “cube bunnies” from the hinterlands of civilization – the Midwest); Harrish's scheme to market the ultimate product TOAW – “turd on a wire” – nothing (but an addictive nothing) with no packaging. Jeter’s critique of capitalism leaves out one important element of the free market: sellers can’t cheat customers indefinitely and repeatedly.

Jeter has a real talent for horror (and had written horror novels) with his weird bits of living, damned speaker cords, a “polyorgy” of dissolving bodies in a pool of fire extinguishing chemicals and, a bizarre, clever take off on the pop culture status of Prince Charles’ remark that he wanted to be girlfriend’s tampon (a sentient, stripped down brain and spinal cord is implanted in a woman). Yet the horror, satire, cyberpunk, and straight sf parts don’t mesh in a consistent or entirely comprehensible way. Why do the fire extinguishing chemicals lubricate than dissolve the bodies of the orgy members? How will the “virus” of TOAW be spread? Is it even a traditional virus? What exactly goes on in the Wedge – real or virtual sex fantasies? I think I know the answer to most of these questions but Jeter is, at times vague, and vague in a way with jars with his extrapolations (satirical or not) and the noir he aspires to imitate.

Still, I liked the novel which didn’t quite work. ( )

Le scifi noir est une catégorie à part dans l'univers de la science fiction selon moi. La plupart des ces romans illustre un avenir sombre et violent; où liberté, justice et égalité ont depuis longtemps disparu.

Noir, de K.W. Jeter ne fait pas vraiment exception: la violence autour des crimes de copyright est déstabilisante (concept original), les personnages sombres et tourmentés, la société y est sans pitié. L'humain n'est qu'un produit.

Les longues descriptions de l'auteur sont presque dignes de prose: riches et noires.
Par contre, ceux-ci viennent briser l'action et le déroulement de l'histoire comme si l'auteur en avait profité pour transmettre son propre message et non celui de ses personnages. Je ne fais pas ça très souvent mais je dois avouer avoir sauté quelques pages...
En conclusion, un livre intéressant pour les amateurs du genre mais à mon sens loin d’être parfait et parfois quelque peu difficile à lire.

http://4nakama.net/2013/08/19/noir-critique/ ( )

Even though there's trippy and stream-of-conciseness type stuff going on (which I hate) I loved the vibe and there were many moments in the I think about on a regular basis. Since I can't remember anything about most books I've read. that's an accomplishment. The themes of copyright and materialism really hit me. ( )

Cyberpunk meets Noir. This is a bleak, violent, sex-filled view of a future world that has gone beyond capitalism. It is Corporatism, and DynaZauber isn't happy with it's market share. People are less than human, and machines are more than metal. Death doesn't release a person from debt. This twisty book is a suspenseful and darkly humorous read if you can take the violence. Sadly though, it's homage to noir also includes the trope noir is always criticized for, a long very very long section where the protagonist and antagonist elucidate the reader/viewer on the crime. Always this discussion happens in a dramatic, dangerous place at a dramatic, dangerous moment where all involved know they should get on with it, but they must let the reader/viewer in on how they've been mislead to this point... before someone dramatically falls to their death.

Yes, Noir loses it in the end. ( )

This writing marks the maturing ideas began in the earlier writings of Mr. Jeter. Especially notable are the alacrity with which the characters 'bop' about the West Coast of the Amerikan continent.