 “KOP” by Warren Hammond
Tor, 331 pages, $25, hardcover
The dust jacket of Denver author
Warren Hammond’s debut novel, “KOP,” sports a cover one rarely sees outside of romance novels: a lifelike, vivid image of the main
characters. Amid a dismal urban landscape that suggests overcrowding
and squalor, a young brunette looks into the distance while a man who
could pass for a meaner, somewhat broken down Pierce Brosnan leers into
the shadows.
“KOP” ain’t no romance novel,
though.
Hammond’s debut is a science
fiction thriller/murder mystery sharing more in common with Raymond
Chandler than Philip Dick.
A jungle-climate shithole
The novel’s setting may be its
primary character. The planet Lagarto, roughly 800 years into the future,
is a jungle-climate shithole. After a trade-based bubble burst generations
earlier, Lagarto, by way of industries, really only has criminal enterprise
and tourism going for it—two modes of industry that are inextricably
linked.
For human characters, we have Juno
Mozambe, presumably the man on the cover. A crooked cop, Juno once was
known for his ass-kicking abilities and take-no-shit approach to corrupt
police politics. Now, eager for retirement because of a (literally)
shaky hand, Juno agrees to a request from his police-chief-friend to
work a bizarre murder case.
Added to his woes is a—wait for
it!—new partner, Maggie Orzo, the wet-behind the-ears, privileged
hottie, also presumably pictured on the cover.
Cliches
Hammond indulges in his share of
hard-boiled-detective clichés, but, he sets the characters and action
among a sci-fi world that seems less gimmicky than most. The odd concoction
actually mixes well.
Hammond brings out some sci-fi
conventions as well, but he also shows that people, for better or worse,
will essentially be the same 800 years from now.
Also impressive is the tricky feat
Hammond pulls off of making the reader identify and even sympathize
with Juno, a guy who could easily have been a villain in another story.
We’re inclined to forgive Juno
many of his ethical foibles, especially after we see that if it weren’t
for much of the crime at which Juno looks the other way, Lagarto would
be even more depressed, economically and in other ways.
Moral relativism becomes a stark
reality in a world as failed as Lagarto.
Take notes and make flow charts
For what he sets out to do, the
only area in which Hammond may stagger is in the execution of the story
itself. Although I don’t have much experience reading mysteries, I
found myself many times during “KOP” wishing I took notes and made
flow charts, given the feeling that I was somehow cheated out of many
of the gasp-inducing revelations.
The ending, however, was pretty
good. According to the book jacket, Hammond is already at work on a
sequel. Depending how fickle the science fiction market gets, Hammond
may be onto something, and readers of a certain stripe may be as eager
for his success as he himself.
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