The very first full novel I ever wrote was a mystery. Actually I still have the four of them, written at the end of elementary school and into middle school. (Maybe, I’ll publish them as children’s books) But even back then I loved a good mystery (I was a Hardy Boys reading fanatic), but also loved science fiction to the point that I was actually thinking of joining NASA when I grew up.
In my new series, I get to combine the best of both worlds–a hard-boiled detective in a cyberpunk world. Look at this photo of the late, great Humphrey Bogart.
As a movie buff, I’ve seen more mystery and detective movies and television shows than I can count, but as an on-screen detective, Bogart still—seventy years later—still ranks as one of the best.
As a movie buff, I always did like film noir that really elevated black-and-white filming to an art form. The shots and shadows were like another character of the movie to create a gritty world more real than real. The world of cyberpunk is far from only black and white. The colors are endless, bold, and in your face, but it’s all muted its own shadows of mega skyscrapers, ever-dim skies, and much of the time…the rain. The perfect world to create a neo-noir setting for my detective; his friends, “frenemies,” and enemies; assorted clients, and very bad guys. A world filled with a lot of high-tech and a lot of low lives.
So what do you have to look forward to? A Sam Spade-like character with a laser pistol in hand facing off cyborg thugs, corporatist king-pins, and government police soldiers? Maybe. It will be entertaining and true to the cyberpunk genre. But it will also be profoundly different in the best possible way.
Should I talk about the series’ protagonist and some of the main characters in the next post?
#Cyberpunk #Detective #Mystery
Austin Dragon is the author of over 30 books in science fiction, fantasy, and classic horror. His works include the sci-fi detective LIQUID COOL series, the epic fantasy FABLED QUEST CHRONICLES, the international futuristic epic AFTER EDEN Series, the classic SLEEPY HOLLOW HORRORS, and new military sci-fi PLANET TAMERS series. He is a native New Yorker but has called Los Angeles, California home for more than twenty years. Words to describe him, in no particular order: U.S. Army, English teacher, one-time resident of Paris, ex-political junkie, movie buff, Fortune 500 corporate recruiter, renaissance man, futurist, and dreamer.
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