Customer Reviews

Ex-KOP

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4 star:		(3)
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As a reader of Hammond's first novel, KOP, I pre-ordered Ex-KOP and read it in two days. I loved it!

There are so many themes that Hammond plays with here: an aging detective (Juno) who fights the good fight when he can but has made more than his share of bad choices, a younger and more idealistic detective (Maggie) who still believes that Juno has "the right stuff" in him, and a world beset by poverty and crime.

But at the heart of this story, as with KOP, in my view, is the relationship between Juno and Maggie. The book begins with the descent of Juno, and while Maggie may have no other choice than to turn to him, you could look at her attempts as giving him an opportunity to redeem himself.

Hammond's writing is raw and unadorned, and he is much heavier on psychological insight than on flowery passages. People comment frequently on the "noir" aspect of his writing, but I see hope glimmering through as well. I am eager to see where he takes these characters.

A great book!

Like another reviewer, I had read KOP and pre-ordered Ex-KOP. It is as good as the first and I can't wait for the third. All the elements are there: deep interesting characters, a complex environment, and a plot that doesn't try to out-think itself. BTW- anyone have any good guana recipes?

Juno Mozambe was a corrupt cop. Now that the ex-chief of police is dead, Juno is out of his job as chief enforcer and trying to make a living with blackmail, private detecting, and anything that will pay the bills. Juno has a lot of bills...mostly starting with the cloned spine he's having grown for his wife. So, when the one honest cop on the force asks for his help, Juno sees a chance to make some money. He doesn't want to lie to her, but Maggie has plenty of money.

Maggie Orzo wants to solve the mysterious case of the mysterious serial killer, even though Juno promises there's no future in pursuing off-worlders. Residents of Lagarta do well not to mess with the off-worlders. Lagarta was poor, a backwater whose fate was made worse by its one-time wealth. But when Maggie's partner busts every finger on Juno's right hand and then threatens his wife, Juno has no choice but to escalate the matter. If Ian wants Juno to back off, Juno intends to do the opposite.

Author Warren Hammond creates a compelling noir world of constant rain, bugs, tent cities, and incredible technology that's simply out of reach for even affluent members of Largarta society. Juno, conflicted between his one-time goals, his need to keep his wife alive despite her wishes, and the evil things he's done along the way, makes for an intriguing and sympathetic character. We know from the start that there can be no total victories on Lagarta, and wonder whether even an incomplete victory is possible in the face of the opposition Juno and Maggie face.

The combination of hard-boiled detective fiction with Science Fiction is an increasingly popular sub-genre, and EX-KOP is an example of how well this can work. Certainly the parallels between Lagarta and third world countries in today's world are obvious. In a couple of places, however, it seemed to me that Hammond took shortcuts. Getting Ian to pay for the decryption Juno needed was clever, but I couldn't understand why Ian would want the files decrypted (or why he never asked for the plain text). I was also expecting a deeper explanation for Ian's transformation from a weak crybaby to the brutal man he became.

EX-KOP is strong science fiction. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for more by Hammond.

In 2788 in the gritty town of Koba on planet Lagarto homicidal dirty detective Diego Banks forces Koba Office of Police cop Juno Mozambe into premature retirement. Juno knows he has no moral stand as he sold out to the powerful crime lords. Before losing his job he was despondent, but now feels like a failure as his efforts as a private investigator proves futile; he feels old, worn-out, and finished with only boozing giving him relief.

His former police partner detective Maggie Orzo quietly hires a reluctant Mozambe to investigate the homicides of the parents of Adela Juarez; the daughter was convicted of the murders and sentenced to be executed. Maggie believes Adela is not only innocent, but her current partner Ian Davies framed the girl. Mozambe works the case muddied by police corruption and attempts to drive him off the inquiry by threatening his family.

The sequel to KOP retains the gritty helplessness of the first futuristic police procedural science fiction (see KOP). Readers will feel they walk the mean streets of a town with no pity alongside of Juno who works a case he does not want to investigate. Fans will appreciate Warren Hammond's excellent but extremely bleak future Noir as abject poverty leaves everyone harder than the carbonite that froze Hans Solo.

Harriet Klausner

Length:: 0:36 Mins

Juno and Maggie are back in another brisk, violent story of life on Lagarto. The plot is capably summarized by other reviewers on this site, so I will limit my comments accordingly. The noir atmosphere so masterfully created in KOP is just as effectively rendered in EX-KOP. Particularly strong is a subplot involving Juno's need for money to pay for a new spine for his wife who, hospitalized after a suicide attempt, has no desire to live. Juno wrestles with the moral and personal issues presented by his wife's desire to die, a dilemma that humanizes Juno, making him all the more appealing to the reader. That humanization is necessary given Juno's immediate disregard for the possible innocence of a convicted murderer, whose case Maggie hires him to investigate. Of course, Juno revises his opinion as the novel progresses, and Hammond does a fine job of letting suspense build as we wait to see whether the prisoner will be saved from execution.

The ending of this novel sets the scene for an anticipated third novel in this entertaining series. I look forward to reading it. If you like action and a sense of noir in your sf, you shouldn't miss the KOP books. I would give EX-KOP 4 1/2 stars if Amazon offered that option.

Warren Hammond's first science fiction novel, KOP, was a great read. Set on a backwater tropical world menaced by flood seasons and cybernetically augmented off-worlders that love slumming in the cesspool of crime and corruption, the novel took me away to another - but still familiar - planet. I don't know if Warren Hammond has read Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels, but I suspect he has.

Although Hammond's series character lives in the same kind of violent and predatory world as Marlowe and plays by his own set of rules, Juno Mozombe is a terribly flawed hero. He's also a hard and brutal man that's not above committing crimes and physically threatening and even harming anyone that stands in his way. But that's fair because everyone Juno tends to go up against deals with him just as harshly.

I love the world of Lagarto. I've read both books, and I settled into the alleys and rivers with no problem at all in Ex-KOP. Rivers course through the city, and hardscrabble people commit crimes and hawk goods constantly while just trying to get by. Once upon a time, Lagarto was wealthy, but that was generations ago. The wealth deserted them and left the planet overpopulated and easy prey for off-worlders living in the space stations that circle the planet.

After the events that played out in the first novel, Juno is no longer a cop. He's working as a seedy quasi-private eye taking sex pictures of off-worlders, hoping to score blackmail money. As a hero, Juno is more desperate than honorable, but I like that about him. He feels real, so when he's trapped into working with ex-partner Maggie Orzo, it's because he has to, not out of some sense of nobility. I like nobility, but Hammond truly screws his character over in the worst possible make - making reading about him and his efforts to get out of the fire irresistible.

In this novel, everything about Juno comes back to haunt him. He's trapped in a world of shifting rocks and hard places. One misstep will doom him or the people he cares about. The police department ignores him for the most part, until he starts sticking his nose into an investigation at Maggie's request. Then he becomes a target for the enemies he thought he'd left behind.

Maggie, whom he feels almost like a father to, is in harm's way too. Investigating a series of murders she believes was done by an off-worlder has marked her for death. Despite Juno's warnings and pleadings, she continues with her investigation. Not only that, but she asks Juno to check into the murders of a husband and wife that she has her suspicions about. Maggie doesn't believe the daughter really killed them. To complicate matters further, Maggie is also involved in a bid for police chief against one of KOP's most dangerous officers.

Juno has no compunction about turning away from Maggie at first. Then she offers him money. He needs money. His wife Niki tried to commit suicide and requires extensive - and expensive - surgical repairs to save her life and get her back on her feet. Maybe Juno can turn away from a friend in need, but he definitely can't turn away from money at the moment.

Hammond plays fairly with Juno's motivations, and he delivers increasing suspense and danger in a logical and consistent way. As I turned the pages and saw Juno's situation turn darker and grimmer, I rooted for him even harder. I forgave all the brutality and under-the-table methods he employed because I was convinced that was the only way he had of saving himself. And I didn't know if that was going to be enough. As a dose of reality in this well-developed future world, Juno ISN'T able to save everyone, which makes the read more disturbing, yet more satisfying.

If you love science fiction and hardboiled crime novels, you'll love Hammond's gala mix of the two genres. The plot never becomes too complicated, and the science fiction segments are frightening believable. The off-worlders are so strong, so invincible, that I want to see Juno square off against them, but I'm afraid that he'll lose that fight. Hammond is at work on the third novel, so it'll be interesting to see where he takes his story next.

Living in San Diego, across the border from Tijuana, and its gruesome daily homicides (many involving cops), I can't help compare the life described on the planet Lagarto, from the KOP series, to the Tijuana murder scene.

Interestingly enough, the far-flung planet Largarto has been founded by Mexican Scientists, who study its Lizard-based "culture" (Largarto basically means Lizard in Spanish)... but, Largarto briefly becomes a gold-mine planet, when a high-quality brandy becomes a "Galactic Hit"... but, like any gold-mine economy, the brandy-based economy collapses when the Lagarto-native plant used to make the brandy is smuggled off-planet. The Largarto economy and jungle-like environnment combine to form a "4th World" economy as bad or worse than any current 3rd World economy on Earth - and the corruption in the planet's only major city's police force (KOP) makes the Tijuana Police corruption look mild in comparison.

But even though the hero of the story is an ex-police enforcer (skimming from the profits of drug dealers, whorehouses, and other extortion rackets), he is somewhat likeable, and you can't help pulling for him as he tryie to take down even more violent and corrupt individuals trying to take over the city's police force and crime rackets.

I also read Hammond's first book and pre ordered this one. It didn't disappoint. The same characters are here along with some new ones. The main character, Juno, is no longer a Kop and his wife is very ill. Maggie tries to enlist him to help her solve a multiple murder case but this doesn't sit well with the other detectives. Juno gets involved anyway and discovers that the murders are linked and some detectives may be involved. I don't want to ruin the story by revealing any more, but trust me, it is worth reading!

I got the book as promptly as I ordered it and found it in the exact order as advertised. I will get a lot of use out of this book!