Ex-KOP Sweats Like Future Noir

SF author Warren Hammond told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Ex-KOP, combines his two greatest literary loves: science fiction and crime novels.

"One of my earliest goals was to take a classic Sam Spade type and plunk him down in a future world custom-built to be the ultimate noir setting, or at least my vision of the ultimate noir setting: an impoverished planet smothered by hot, steamy jungle," Hammond said in an interview.

Ex-KOP, which is a follow-up to Hammond's first novel, KOP, follows Juno Mozambe. "[He] was once the dirtiest of the dirty cops, a self-described police enforcer with a mean streak," Hammond said. "Serving for decades as the corrupt chief's right hand, he used to be the most feared cop in the Koba Office of Police (KOP), but now he's been forced into retirement."

But now his wife is in trouble--serious trouble--and he needs cash in a big way. "A girl sits on death row, accused of having killed her parents, and Juno's former partner, Maggie Orzo, isn't buying her guilt," Hammond said. "Maggie [offers] Juno ... the case, [and,] desperate for a quick score, he takes the job and promptly finds himself getting sucked deeper and deeper into a world of dirty cops, serial killers and pornography."

Although Ex-KOP takes place in the future on a distant world, the residents of the colony world of Lagarto share many of the problems we face today. "It's a place where poverty and class struggle are still the norm and the advances of technology have served to broaden the gaps between rich and poor," Hammond said. "It's a place where morals are for sale and even the good deeds require a little skull-cracking. A hard-bitten world for a hardass cop."

Lagarto is loosely based on the Congo at the turn of the last century. "My stories take place generations after the collapse of Lagarto's economy, when the planet is suffering from endemic poverty and a regressing technology level," Hammond said. "The rest of the galaxy keeps advancing, but these people are basically trapped on their world with little or no options other than trying to attract a few tourists by turning their home into a haven for vice."

Hammond is currently working on book three in the series, KOP Killer.

-John Joseph Adams