This is a crime noir sci-fi novel. It some ways in reminded me of Blade Runner. The novel has a very interesting premise where people become "Titans" after injecting a serum that makes them bigger, stronger, and faster. However, the writing style didn't quite fully work for me. It was a bit jarring. Overall, not a bad book by any means. I would recommend to fans of crime noir novels with a science fiction spin!

Nick Harkaway (IRL Nick Cornwell, the son of the great novelist David Cornwell aka John Le Carré) has written a number of conceptually dense science fiction novels, all of which I have read. He has also written some mystery/thriller novels, which I have not read, under a different pseudonym. This new novel combines the elements of both sorts of books. It's a mystery thriller, told in the first person by a detective protagonist. But the novel is also set in a near-future world, that differs from the one we know.

The novum that differentiates the world of the novel from our reality is the existence of Titans, people who have been given extended life and (in effect) superpowers by treatment with a gene therapy known as T7. The recipients of this treatment are wholly rejuvenated; their bodies in effect revert to adolescence and undergo another growth spurt, resulting in extremely strong bones, repair of all damages due to injury and aging, and an enormous physique. Titans with one treatment are seven or eight feet tall; repeated treatments leave you even larger and stronger. Your lifespan is also extended by decades with each treatment. T7 treatment is both extremely expensive, and in the hands of a monopoly that controls its use. Even if you have the hundreds of millions of dollars needed for treatment, you may not get it if the head of the corporation does not like you.

Cal Sounder, the first-person protagonist of the novel, is hired by the police as a consultant when there are crimes involving Titans. These are fairly uncommon, since the Titans themselves are usually too strong to be crime or murder victims, and since they are also rich enough to buy off anybody who might question them.

Nonetheless, the novel begins with the murder of a Titan, and Cal is called in to solve the case. Everything turns out to hinge -- as one would expect given the genre -- on both massive corruption and nasty family dynamics. Cal himself is not a Titan but he knows them from the inside due to his previous connections (on which I will not elaborate, because this would entail spoilers). I will just say that the central metaphor/novum of Titans works really well, because it literalizes, in physical form, how rich and powerful people are for the most part exempt from all the rules, norms, and necessities that the rest of us are subject to. In the course of his investigation, Cal is exposed to multiple perspectives on the situation, ranging all the way from an overtly marxist critique to the 'cynical reason' that is used to justify the actually-existing system.

The novel is pessimistic about the possibilities of social reform, but it gives us a satisfying more or less happy ending for the detective himself. The plotting is intricate and very well done. The most interesting sections are the ones that explore the sleaze and nastiness in which Titans, unlike ordinary people, are able and willing to indulge. Being rich and powerful allows people to get away with a lot, and the ugliest sides of human nature are thereby enacted right in the open. The most memorable character in the book is one in whom the T7 treatment has gone wrong; so that instead of joining the elite, he instead becomes a vicious crime lord. He is more entertainingly twisted than the regular Titans, but in fact no more depraved than they all are.

Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway is a superb read with a superb plot and characters Well worth the time and recommended!

A fusion of sci-fi-fantasy and crime noir. Detective Cal Sounder works with the police as a special investigator and is called to the scene of a 'socio-medical crime,' the murder of a Titan named Roddy Tebbit. Titans are regular humans who have received at least one infusion of Titanium 7, which is a treatment that stimulates rejuvenation of the body. Only the rich can afford it and it's sort of the fountain of youth people have been searching for for millennia. In the process of this rejuvenation, Titans also grow much taller and stronger, hence the name they've been given, like they are some kind of gods. The victim, Roddy, is at least 7 foot tall.

The story is a little hard to get into at first, something to do with the writing style which seems a bit confusing, like looking through a foggy mirror. Cal has a history with Titans, being madly in love with one named Athena whose family owns the drug business, so part of the early difficulty is figuring out these past relationships and what they have to do with the crime at hand. And who is now trying to stop Cal from investigating.

But I did get into it eventually and liked Cal as a lead character, a guy who is smart and resilient, so I hope this is the start of a series. It's a strange new world.

I received an arc of this novel from the author and publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks for the opportunity. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Let me start this by saying I'm not a fan of detective series. I think they're one in the same for the most part. However, I will RIOT if Harkaway doesn't make Cal a regular feature in his upcoming releases. I NEED another run in with Cal and Doublewide.

Titanium Noir is a crime noir novel with a sci-fi twist - the elite now have access to a drug, T7, that can renew their youth. One of the side effects involves overall growth in the human. Overtime, this results in some massive billionaires known as Titans. What happens when Titans are murdered? Cal, not a Titan himself, comes in to investigate. It just so happens today's case is surrounding Roddy - a Titan who chose to lead a quiet life, and thanks to his one-dose status and quiet demeanor, his size isn't large enough to flag him as a Titan to the general public. So why is Roddy dead?

Nice cross between crime fiction and noir. Great characters and well told story. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I really enjoyed this sci/fi meets detective noir novel from Nick Harkaway. Enjoyable and intriguing characters, a well paced plot, and some unexpected twists. Although all loose threads were wrapped up, I wouldn't mind if this turned into a series. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advanced reader copy.

The newest Nick Harkaway book finds a detective investigating the murder of a titan - seven feet tall, and 91 years old while looking only 40. Cal knows about this world, having dated a titan before. However, as he investigates, he soon realizes there might be more to this case than it seemed at first.

I’ve found with Harkaway that you either love the concept or don’t vibe with it because they are so unique. This wasn’t my favorite. Loved the concept, but just didn’t get in with the protagonist.

Future times!

Hard nosed detective Cal Sounder investigates the murder of a Titan, a genetically modified elite.
Set in a dystopian futuristic world there’s more here than meets the eye, as Cal finds out.
Cal is a Titan specialist, a consultant to the police in these types of cases.
T7 injections turn ordinary humans into super beings. It’s incredibly expensive, highly desirable. It can save one from all sorts of physical challenges but your intellect doesn’t improve. Maybe that’s offset by living a few hundred years. Maybe?!
Learning to live with a body that’s been extended is no joke. Some (not many) have had several T shots over time—a long time.
The tone is set in the first few opening lines, in the sparse, take no prisoners, non conversation between Cal and the Captain as they head towards the crime scene.
A crime that will lead Cal back through the victim’s history as it intersects with others, and ultimately his own. There’s some delightful lines in the way of detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) of the Maltese Falcon fame.
“ Murder rooms are like train stations at midnight, not much left to do before the last departure.”
I must say I enjoyed every moment of Titanium Noir—it’s very noir, hard edged, smart and at times tragic.

A Knopf ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

An amazing noir take on what it means to be human and the power of loss and memory. Think Memento meets The Maltese Falcon just not too heavy on the noir.

Nick Harkaway has written a great book about post-humans and it is an incredibly accessible book unlike Gnomon which had a lot of promise but failed to execute. Some might not like that it's not particularly deep but it is an enjoyable and quick read. Highly recommended for a beach read or a long flight.

What happens when one of the elite Titans is killed? You call in an expert, of course. But, no matter how the situation is handled, someone is bound to get offended. Or dead. Titanium Noir is funny, acerbic, and so wonderfully reminiscent of classic hardboiled detective fiction you might forget the sci-fi aspects of the story. Fans of concept fiction will enjoy this immensely.

I will preface this with the fact that I read a lot of dystopian-specific books, but minimal true sci-fi and this book felt like a great mixture of both. Reading this book felt like watching a movie and I really enjoyed it. I thought the book was well written and I loved the noir detective aspect of it and really liked the characters and the world that the author built!

In Titanium Noir's society, the elites inject themselves with T7, a drug that turns them into titans. Cal Sounder, a detective who works special cases involving titans, is called in to investigate what seems to be a "routine" murder investigation. However, it becomes apparent that this murder is part of a much larger conspiracy.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I really wanted to LOVE it since the book is a mix of my two favorite genres: thriller and sci-fi. It did not meet my expectations, though. There were definitely thriller and sci-fi elements in this book, but the story was a little slow for me. I wish it was written a little different because I think the concept is great. The execution just wasn't my favorite. My favorite parts of the book are probably the sci-fi twist and Cal Sounder's entertaining character. Overall, I recommend this book, but I will say it definitely was not a page-turner for me.

As the title implies, this is a noir detective story, but with a science fiction angle. Titanium refers to a genetic modification therapy called T7 that heals, extends lifespan, and makes the patient larger than normal (larger with each dose): so, they are referred to as Titans. An interesting idea, with ramifications that the story explores as it goes. And Harkaway's hardboiled detective language is a delight.

Like most good noir stories this one begins with a murder (which looks like suicide at first glance). The victim is a seemingly mild-mannered college professor, and it is only after closer examination that private detective Cal Sounder–who the police call in on special cases–concludes that he was a Titan. Most Titans live ostentatious lifestyles in keeping with their enhanced physical characteristics and long lives and are regarded as almost godlike by many in the normal population. So, a dead Titan is almost unthinkable, and a murdered one is unimaginable.

Of course, there must be more to the story, and like any good detective Cal starts digging. It being a noir story, answers are hard to find, and powerful people don't seem to want him looking. But he does figure it out. In the middle of his classic confrontation with the perpetrator Cal receives an unexpected visitor, and gets help from an unexpected source when all looks lost. In retrospect, the conclusion may have been preordained, but that does not make it any less surprising. This was my third Harkaway novel, and I am definitely a fan.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Reader's copy.

This was a lot of fun. Prime summer read. It was quick and had a lot of action. I would recommend it for people who like the genre.

Novels about hardboiled PIs are not my usual fare but Titanium Noir sounded interesting and I’m so glad I picked it up. Cal Sounder is your typical gumshoe, he gets into fights, plays several parties against each other and mouths off to everyone. The world he inhabits is also pretty familiar: dark streets, kingpins and femme fatales, dingy nightclubs that contrast with the world of the rich and famous… What is definitely not the usual is the sci-fi element: this is a future where a drug can make you immortal and, as a side effect, huge – a Titan. Cal is an unofficial liaison between the police and the Titans. He is an ordinary, unenhanced human himself, but his femme fatale is a Titan. He is hard to dislike and even the Titans are more relatable than huge immortal godlike beings have any right to be. I can’t express how much I enjoyed the witty dialogues, at once familiar and alien. The author integrates the sci-fi element so well, that it’s hard to separate what’s not real. The plot is delightful, full of familiar turns but with a twist. And this is what defines this book the most, it is an awfully original take on a very familiar genre. I kept expecting one thing and getting another. I really loved that ending.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor!

This book is a mix of sci-fi, crime, and mystery.

In this futuristic world, certain humans undergo genetic enhancements and are known as Titans. Bigger, stronger, basically upgraded versions of human beings.

One day a titan turns up dead, which is kind of a bigger deal than an average persons death. Cal, a detective, is tasked with investigating this man’s death. I’m doing so, he uncovers a web of secrets among the entangled lives of various Titans, including his former girlfriend’s powerful father. Uncovering the truth of who this dead Titan is and why he died will ultimately change Cal’s life forever.

This book was enticing and unique. Unfortunately the climax and resolution weren’t that exciting and left me slightly unsatisfied. I just wanted a bigger wow factor. It was a good book with an ok ending.

If you like crime thrillers and sci fi books, this one is for you!

Sometimes taking a chance on an interesting-sounding advance copy of a book pays off, and man, is that ever the case with Nick Harkaway’s Titanium Noir, a hard-boiled detective tale in just enough science fiction to help him make sure that his contemporary parallels don’t distract you from the gripping tale he’s unfolding. What’ll grab you quickly about Titanium Noir is the prose; Harkaway’s police-adjacent detective is a jaded, cynical man, and his clipped narration and snarky banter illustrates that cleanly for us long before Harkaway gives us glimpses - never full explanations - of how he got this way. Indeed, one of the great things about the book is how Harkaway gives us a complex world full of undercurrents - the presence of figures known at Titans, whose power both physical and political is unmissable; the currents of a rich underworld, with a mythic figure at its head; new forms of bars and speakeasies with a very different aim - but never holds our hand through it, letting us infer as much as he can and instead just forcing us to experience it and lose ourself in the world. And lose yourself you will - this is a sharply drawn tale, with a great mystery at its core, but better still, a knockout array of characters - an iron-willed bartender, a slew of underworld connections, and my favorite, that mythic crime boss whose predilection for florid language and talking can’t help but bring to mind Casper Gutman from The Maltese Falcon. I couldn’t put down Titanium Noir once I started - from the fascinating sci-fi-infused noir world to the compelling characters, from the gripping mystery to the tight prose, all the way to a nicely pyrrhic ending that leaves the door open to more, or perhaps just leaves our hero changed forever. In short, it’s a knockout read, and the fact that I now have Harkaway’s other books to go through? Even better.

“It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.” Yes, that’s a perfectly chiseled line from narrator Philip Marlow in Raymond Chandler’s iconic The Big Sleep. With this in mind, have you been hanging at the noir bar for decades, waiting for a refill? You are in luck my friend, author Nick Harkaway’s Titanium Noir is a sci fi/classic detective noir mashup, a combo that has worked well since the original Blade Runner movie. And Harkaway puts his own narrative stamp on it by summoning the wonderfully witty hard-bitten musings of Cal Sounder, an investigator, sometimes detective, and “external contractor” to the overworked PD. Cal’s specialty is the grey place that falls between the luxuriant land of dreams, Chersenesos, and everything surrounding it that is not Chersenesos, gritty, rundown and just hanging on.

Harkaway gleefully details a post WW2 urban playground has morphed into the not too distant future; where the division between the have and have nots goes beyond magnificent real estate, brimming bank accounts, and breathtakingly expensive toys. It’s also in the bones, blood and skin of the Titans, a limited edition of the vetted uber rich who have been injected with T7, a shape-altering concoction, which creates a legion of near immortal gigantic humans, all chosen by the kingpin of kingpins, Stefen Tonfamecasca. Cal has a long history with them.

Like any noir story worth its whiskey, the dialog is snappy and sparse, the characters, and there are many of them, indelible, cynical and well-sketched, from Athena, the statuesque former love of Cal’s life and current Titan, to Vic, the fierce owner of a nightclub that features a full bar of everything illicit and dangerous, to the unexpected gasp-worthy appearance of an urbane urban legend who definitely has a Marvel universe flair. The settings are as varied and vivid as the characters, near ideal foils for the turns of the serpentine plot.

Of course it starts with a murder, this one involving a victim bursting with contradictions, Roddy Tebbit, a nerd Titan, who is a genteel introverted biologist that teaches at a well-heeled university; he also has a penchant for nightclubs and female companionship. Since it involves a Titan, Cal is called in and thus begins the lone wolf investigator’s lot, the one we know and love so well; it will lead him to several merciless beatings, a few dead bodies, some bright red herrings, the Titan’s origin story, a long lost romance with a kicker of a resolution, and some very fraught relationships with both the Titans and the police.

Come for the premise, stay for the pitch perfect execution and the zeal, humor and mordant fun that Harkaway brings to a nice neighborhood with bad habits. Recommended as a high proof story to toss back after a long day. My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an arc of this book.

I love good science fiction reads as well as detective noir books. Titanium Noir checked both boxes for me and it didn't disappoint.

In the near dystopian future, Cal Sounder is a consultant to the police. Whenever there is an unusual case, he is called in so when a murder victim turns out to be a Titan, it's right up Cal's alley. There are only a few thousand Titans in the world and who becomes one is tightly controlled by Stefan Tonfamecasca and his family. The victim, one Roddy Tebbit, is a relatively newly-made Titan and a seemingly unlikely candidate. In addition to their long lives, Titans are hard to harm, much less murder so Cal is confronted with an ostensibly impossible case. As he begins to delve into Roddy's life, more questions than answers occur and all roads lead back to the powerful Stefan Tonfamecasca, a showdown Cal wants to avoid.

I loved this cross-genre story with its snappy dialogue and the spunky Cal Sounder. Cal is a reluctant hero and one who is easy to root for. This is a complex plot with twists and a surprisingly thought-provoking turn: if you could achieve near immortality, would you? It is fast-paced with prose that is both atmospheric and retro. Harkaway did an excellent job of blending genres, the result of which is a near-perfect venture into a future full of dangers and moral dilemmas.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf for an advance copy for review. The publication date is May 16, 2023.