KOP

By: Warren Hammond

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Juno is a dirty cop with a difficult past and an uncertain future. When his family and thousands of others emigrated to the colony world of Lagarto, they were promised a bright future on a planet with a booming economy. But before the colonists arrived, everything changed. An opportunistic Earth-based company developed a way to produce a cheaper version of Lagarto’s main export, thus effectively paupering the planet and all its inhabitants.

Growing up on post-boom Lagarto, Juno is but one of the many who live in despair. Once he was a young cop in the police department of the capital city of Koba. That was before he started taking bribes from Koba’s powerful organized crime syndicate. Yet despite his past sins, some small part of him has not given up hope. So he risks his life, his marriage and his job to expose a cabal that would enslave the planet for its own profit. But he's got more pressing problems, when he's confronted with a dead man, a short-list of leads, and the obligatory question: who done it? Set up for a fall, partnered with a beautiful young woman whose main job is to betray him, and caught in a squeeze between the police chief and the crooked mayor, Juno is a compelling, sympathetic hero on a world that has no heroes.

An exciting science fiction adventure and a dark, gritty noir thriller told in taut, powerful prose, Kop is a remarkable debut novel.

Also listen to the sequel, Ex-KOP.

©2007 Warren Hammond (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Nice and Gritty

Alright, some people were giving this book some flak that I don't think it deserves, so let me address that first.

Someone was saying that the entire premise was unbelievable because of the fertility of the planet and presumably, the lack of ingenuity on the inhabitants part. While it's true that there doesn't seem to be much agricultural activity (or it's just not described because it's irrelevant?), the continued destitution of the planet is, without going into spoilers, plausibly explained.

Another person was complaining about the adult content of this book. Yes, this is a gritty, almost grimdark scifi and the main character is definitely an antihero. There is violence, gore and sex. I don't know what that person was expecting going into this or why you would expect anything except a gritty, adult story based on the description, but I can assure everyone who does not have a sensitive moral code restricted to Hallmark channel values that that particular review bomb should be dismissed out of hand.

I found the whole book to be entertaining, with well written dialogue, character development, plot progression and world building. As I mentioned, it embraces the grim hopelessness, violence and amorality common to grimdark, but with a noir detective backdrop.

On top of that, the voice acting by Marc Vietor was great. He does well with character differentiation and has a perfect gruff voice to play the part of a hardboiled, run down detective. I will be adding him to my list of narrators to look at for future audiobook ideas.

Overall, I heartily recommend this book to people who like dismal, depressing atmospheres and antihero characters. I'm looking forward to listening to the next book!

Hard-boiled detective story w/ sci fi backdrop

If you like noir tales of the Dashiell Hammett variety, and aren't afraid of a little sci fi, then I think you'll enjoy this. The sci fi setting isn't overpowering given the premise - interplanetary travel is possible, but the detective is working on a destitute planet. The poverty keeps the story grounded in pulp feel, and there's enough sci fi for the author to play with some fun scenarios.

Not Noir

This isn’t a noir detective story, it’s pure filth and overly descriptive pornography. The characters are unreliable, unrealistic, and the main “protagonist” is lacking any admirable qualities. Don’t waste your time on this cliche ridden, hyper sexualized garbage.

The Earth Man's Burden

What would have made KOP better?

Absolutely hated it. Not the performance was good, and the writing isn't bad, but the premise really, really stinks. We are to understand that the MIXED_RACE decendants of space age share-croppers live a hopeless, wretched squallid, existence on a panet so fertize that the forest has to be regularly burned, because the"Eurt-Mun do want to buy the moon-shine no-moe". Yikes......the whole world is theirs! I will not be buying book 2.