Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Paris Noir

I've read only three stories in the book so far, but I've enjoyed all of them. The question I'd ask, however, is "are they noir?" Sparkle Hayter's "Deus ex Machina" is very funny and a bit dark. I'm a sucker for a story about a writer with problems. You can count on Jason Starr for an effective bit of violence. Or two. And you get them in "Bar Fight," a clever story with a couple of nice twists. The closest one to noir, by my definition, is Michael Moorcock's "The Flaneur of Les Arcades de l'Opera." There was a time, more than 30 years ago, when I immersed myself in the Chronicles of Corum, the accounts of Count Brass, the tales of Elric (Elric, for me, is noir), and many other novels of the multiverse, but I haven't kept up with Moorcock's huge production, and I'm not well-versed in the adventures of the Metatemporal Detectives. However, I knew enough to follow the story quite well, and it made me want to read more of this series. I'll be reading more of the stories in the book, which has a great line-up of authors.

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