Sleeper Beach - The Library of the Uncommons

English language

ISBN:: 978-1-4721-5889-5

On the shore of a rundown holiday town, a young woman washes up dead. Martha Erskine, the matriarch of a local dynasty, suspects a member of her own family might be involved in the murder, and calls in Cal to investigate.

Cal Sounder is a detective first and a Titan second, but it's not easy to make that work. It's hard to be an ordinary guy when you're fundamentally not ordinary anymore. Cal has recently taken a dose of T7, a rare drug that is usually the preserve of the rich, making its users - called the Titans - younger and bigger each time they take it, so that as they age the bodies of the ultra-wealthy become as immense as their bank accounts.

As Cal digs into the crime, he finds this forgotten town is simmering with wage disputes, strikes, and political conflict, and no one is …

On the shore of a rundown holiday town, a young woman washes up dead. Martha Erskine, the matriarch of a local dynasty, suspects a member of her own family might be involved in the murder, and calls in Cal to investigate.

Cal Sounder is a detective first and a Titan second, but it's not easy to make that work. It's hard to be an ordinary guy when you're fundamentally not ordinary anymore. Cal has recently taken a dose of T7, a rare drug that is usually the preserve of the rich, making its users - called the Titans - younger and bigger each time they take it, so that as they age the bodies of the ultra-wealthy become as immense as their bank accounts.

As Cal digs into the crime, he finds this forgotten town is simmering with wage disputes, strikes, and political conflict, and no one is quite who they say they are - not even the victim. As Cal second-guesses everyone he meets, he is forced to confront his own identity and ask himself who he wants to be from the far side of the mirror of power, age and greed.

1 edition

MH Thaung reviewed Sleeper Beach by Nick Harkaway (Titanium Noir, #2)

Solid SF noir, better as a sequel than a standalone

No rating

I really enjoyed Titanium Noir when I read it a couple of years ago and picked up the sequel with curiosity. Will note here that Sleeper Beach probably doesn’t work well as a standalone read as there are recurrent characters and lingering issues from book 1. As previously, the book is told in first person, present tense by MC Cal Sounder (not a viewpoint I love, but it works here). Cal is a detective who straddles the interface between regular humans and the rare, enhanced Titans. We also explore what such a society might look like as Cal navigates political and family environments in the course of his investigation.

Unsurprisingly for a noir mystery, things kick off with a dead body. There are many strands about whodunnit, whydunnit, and how. I liked the sense that everyone had their own motivations, both overt and hidden. Some groups (such as the …

I really enjoyed Titanium Noir when I read it a couple of years ago and picked up the sequel with curiosity. Will note here that Sleeper Beach probably doesn’t work well as a standalone read as there are recurrent characters and lingering issues from book 1. As previously, the book is told in first person, present tense by MC Cal Sounder (not a viewpoint I love, but it works here). Cal is a detective who straddles the interface between regular humans and the rare, enhanced Titans. We also explore what such a society might look like as Cal navigates political and family environments in the course of his investigation.

Unsurprisingly for a noir mystery, things kick off with a dead body. There are many strands about whodunnit, whydunnit, and how. I liked the sense that everyone had their own motivations, both overt and hidden. Some groups (such as the titular sleepers) for more emphasis than I felt the plot merited, which makes me wonder if they’ll crop up in a subsequent book. Overall, very similar in style and content to the first book - with a different mystery, of course!