Book Review: SPACE STATION NOIR by Arthur Mayor
SPACE STATION NOIR by Arthur Mayor is a science fiction crime fiction storyline set in a seedy space station where humanity is a persecuted minority, Earth is conquered, and the only other alien race is a bunch of ostrich-like aliens who have their own mafia. It is a bizarre juxtaposition that is part of the fun of the book that manages to combine the absurd with the incredibly dark.
The premise is that Gunny is a human (or "monster" as they're called by the Hissers since we're huge hulking gorillas to the bird people). Gunny is a former slave and has managed to escape to one of the locations in Hisser territory where it is outlawed. That doesn't mean humans are liked by the Hissers on the station, though. As mentioned, they are second-class citizens with plenty of the aliens wishing we would just go away and not being afraid to show it.
Gunny has a plan to achieve some level of stability in this absolutely terrible situation: become a career criminal. He's actually achieved some success in this field by partnering with a Hisser named Clive. Becuse humans can't pronounce the Hisser's bird-like chirps, all of the aliens have human names, which I found to be rather clever. Clive and he are independent because no boss will permanently hire them but the station has literally hundreds of petty crime lords that they're willing to freelance for.
The book makes the intelligent decision of introducing a number of sci-fi elements but keeping them within the familiar genre of noir. I actually think it leans out of noir a little bit into more straightforward science fiction action but I'm not going to complain too much. It's a corrupt society, the protagonist is a professional gunman, and it's a buddy caper drama. That's noir enough for me to qualify.
Of all the characters in the book other than the lead, I have to say that I like Clive the most. Clive is a character that has the natural humor of the fact he's an immense ladies man, lazy, and flamboyant but he's a giant bird. So the contrast is something that helps make him stand out. He's also a lot more happy go lucky than the grimly determined Clive.
As a huge fan of noir detective stories, cyberpunk, and space opera, this is right up my alley. A complicated political situation has developed and Gunny is caught up in the middle. You could do a lot worse for an afternoon's read and I binged most of the series in a couple of weeks.
Really enjoyable.
