“Altered Pathways” by T. R. Neff

Yet another example of a novel where its greatest strength creates a serious weakness.

This is a Noire Detective story in a Sci-Fi setting, but the multiple futuristic names and  scientific and social jargon make it difficult to understand what, exactly, is happening. It falls just on the wrong side of the delicate balance between creating an imaginative Sci-Fi setting and breaking the reader’s concentration on the story with a cascade of details.

The style of the writing is definitely in the Noire genre, with clipped sentences and colloquial dialogue. And this is where another problem crops up. There are also many sentence structure and word order errors that distract the reader from the flow of the story.

“A couple of trauma tanks whipped in, but didn’t haul in not enough medtechs to go around. Swarms of drones bearing insurance markings descended to collect and sort the pieces of wreckage and damage to the buildings before he’d even begun.”

When we hit one of these glitches, it becomes difficult to tell whether it’s a proofing error, distinctive writing style or a legitimate dialect idiosyncrasy.

This made the story difficult to follow. I was halfway through the book before I realized that the author was jumping back and forth between two different time periods.

 Characterization is a key element in Noire genre, and Vorsky is certainly up to the job. He develops slowly and subtly in our consciousness, because his tough-guy persona refuses to show anything so gauche as a tender feeling. His soft side gradually oozes out, however, and our sympathies are strongly involved.

The other main characters are also powerful and fascinating in their own right, and the story is held together by strong thematic material that strikes a chord in the modern reader.

This is an enjoyable tale, but the author needs to pay more attention to what the reader is getting from the story. Recommended for fans of heavy-duty world building. And Noire, of course.

Three stars.

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