Titanium Noir

A constant digital nag from online references. In a weak moment, I caved and looked. The library blurb was exciting, as it implied a combination of Raymond Chandler and William Gibson. Not sure it holds up like that, but the first blush was crisp and sharp.

“A university is a small, fractious mini-state all its own, and it has heroes and villains and victims of circumstance and it is not always easy to tell them apart when you’re in the top chair.” Page 32.

It is. Unless it’s a large university. Like a kingdom.

There was a series of books, formative fiction in its time, by George Alec Effinger. I looked, briefly, and I couldn’t find my paperback copies, but this stretches more than three decades back, and as a such, might be lost — no, there they are.

I can’t recall the details of the plots, the material subject of the books, but it was part of series, and at the time, the nascent cyberpunk generation literature. No, can’t recall details, but it is material that echoes back forth throughout this one, Titanium Noir.

I was looking for a grip, a point of entry, a “this reminds of me of that” instance. That’s the for the window settings. The mythic level, along with the rich, lustrous prose that is quite — spartan?

There has to be a retelling of some epic Greek myth, updated, but with clear lines drawn, and I couldn’t think which one it was, but basically, like all the real, old greek myths? “Gods behaving badly — just like impetuous children.”

Rather interesting reading, if a tad bit dense at times, but certainly action packed.