I don’t read a lot of science fiction, though it’s a genre I love as a canvas for exploring ideas about our possible futures, utopian, dystopian or a mix. The world that Woodrow Bell has created here is a noir blend, tending towards the dystopian—and chillingly possible.

A Dystopian Sci-Fi Noir Thriller Worthy of Ridley Scott

In this sci-fi noir thriller, Elijah is a washed-up PI in a dystopian citysphere where corporate AI, personified by the all-powerful company Meridian, regulates the haves—living in their luxury pinnacles shrouded in AI overlays of sumptuousness—from the have-nots—struggling and dying in slums known as the “Trenches”. Self-loathing and alcoholic due to the death for which he was blamed several years ago of his lover and police partner, Marla, Elijah is desperately clinging to his lower middle-class status as a credit-less resident of the Gateway neighbourhood, while fighting to avoid drowning himself in drink and self-pity.

He is given a chance to redeem himself by his former police boss and now rising politician, Dominic. Scientists working for the all-powerful AI corporation Meridian are disappearing, apparently suicides. The cynical Dominic tasks Elijah with verifying whether these deaths are truly so innocent. His investigations bring him into contact with Marla’s sister Thea, now working for the Resistance. Together they pit themselves against the malevolent Meridian.

Most of all I loved the ambience of this book—it is gritty detective noir transmuted into a futuristic urban realm reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. The alcoholic, self-hating Elijah is pure Philip Marlowe. The fictional world—one where it is no mean feat for human rebel elements to remain free of the dastardly AI Meridian’s clutches—is flawlessly developed and generally believable.

This is an expertly executed sci-fi noir thriller that is sure to satisfy even the most exacting readers in the genre.

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