Rating: 
Summary: Dystopia effectively, grimly mixing noir with cyberpunk.
Review: For fans of Hammett and Chandler, NOIR will sound comfortingly -- and discomfortingly -- familiar, for Jeter respects the genre of noir fiction and has handled its conventions with skill and panache. For fans of cyberpunk, NOIR will revisit familiar themes in effective and disturbing ways; Philip K. Dick would have admired this book. For those who believed that the two genres could not be crossbred, NOIR will be a revelation.And yet... I wanted to like this book (and had I liked this book I would have given it four stars), but I only ended up admiring it (hence three stars). For the central character in NOIR acts with a brutality that at one or two points goes far beyond the boundaries of noir and well into the territory of sadism. It would give too much away to those who want to read the book to go into specifics. Suffice it to say that NOIR is emphatically NOT a book for the tender-hearted or the squeamish.
Rating: 
Summary: A mind expanding experience
Review: I can understand people not liking Jeter's "NOIR." It's difficult, at times convoluted, and oh so brutal. (By the same concept, I understand people who don't like Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction, although it seems universally respected as something significant in the world of film.) Similarly, I think people can say they don't like NOIR, but people who want to say this book is bad simply don't get it. You have to respect what Jeter does. Roger Zelazny once said in an essay regarding the masterful Philip K. Dick "his story takes you from here to there in a God-knows-how, seemingly haphazard fashion, which, upon reflection, follows a logical line of development -- but only on reflection." The same can be said of Jeter and NOIR. As you read this book, you worry that jarring, sarcastic, or dark concepts are thrown in just because, but by the end of the novel the neural tissue speaker wires, the indeadted, McNihil's eyes, and much, much more are so VERY important to the plot and "resolution" of the story. Wonderful. Fans of all genres should read this. Fans of science fiction aren't really fans if they don't. Like it or not, it's a unique experience, and in the world of 1/4" deep science fiction, that is unique indeed.
Rating:
Summary: A mind expanding experience
Review: I can understand people not liking Jeter's "NOIR." It's difficult, at times convoluted, and oh so brutal. (By the same concept, I understand people who don't like Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction, although it seems universally respected as something significant in the world of film.) Similarly, I think people can say they don't like NOIR, but people who want to say this book is bad simply don't get it. You have to respect what Jeter does. Roger Zelazny once said in an essay regarding the masterful Philip K. Dick "his story takes you from here to there in a God-knows-how, seemingly haphazard fashion, which, upon reflection, follows a logical line of development -- but only on reflection." The same can be said of Jeter and NOIR. As you read this book, you worry that jarring, sarcastic, or dark concepts are thrown in just because, but by the end of the novel the neural tissue speaker wires, the indeadted, McNihil's eyes, and much, much more are so VERY important to the plot and "resolution" of the story. Wonderful. Fans of all genres should read this. Fans of science fiction aren't really fans if they don't. Like it or not, it's a unique experience, and in the world of 1/4" deep science fiction, that is unique indeed.
Rating: 
Summary: "Executive Suite" meets "Pulp Fiction."
Review: I completed this book a month or two ago, and I still find myself obsessing about the dark vision Jeter has of the future, especially of business, management styles, computers, religion, sex, the Internet, copyright laws, man's tolerance of violence, the purposes of crime and punishment, debt. And I sadly see the cutting edge (yes, the pun is intentional) of society slouching precipitously down the path Jeter has blazed here. Other readers have mentioned the difficulty they had with this work. At times, it does seem a little Faulkneresque, but you can figure out what's happening, and it's definitely worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting writing
Review: I didn't really enjoy _Noir_ all that much. The writing was convoluted, seemingly for its own sake at times, and it never built toward an ending. It seemed, rather, to meander in exacting description of just how bad everything is. The last 40 pages or so wrapped the plot together by revealing a lot of off screen action that made for a 'happy' ending. While the reader is struggling to understand the significace of McNihil's eyes, and why it is they are mentioned every 10 pages or so, McNihil is solving everything, without having the decency to let the reader know what the Hell it is that he's doing! It was, however, rather disappointing to wade through the baroque writing of the first few hundred pages and find it to be nothing more than scene setting. Not plot development. Scene setting. Sure, the characterizations are interesting, and yes, the world is somewhat dark. Wasn't worth the build up.
Rating:
Summary: Really exciting, a cool read, even if a bit too scary.
Review: I dug this book & read it straight through. Some of the stuff in it is really wacked & kind of gruesome, but it all fit in. It's a scary future world but I could see it happening. Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: A literate sci-fi excursion
Review: I found Noir to be a thoroughly entertaining and engrossing novel. The concept is very imaginative and its presentation superbly skillful. Some portions are pretty far out there, but Jeter, for the most part, avoids a sci-fi silly soup with a gritty down to earth narrative tone. I especially liked his treatment of consumer debt and intellectual property rights. Jeter magnifies and projects these present day concerns into a disturbingly spooky future that is central to the story. The villian is a prototypical evil corporation and its depiction seems a bit weak compared to the excellent character development of the book's hero. I really enjoyed the writing style used in Noir. It is definitely more literary than most science fiction. In some places Jeter seems to be showing off his language skills more than moving the story along, but even these asides are enjoyable to anyone who appreciates beautiful writing for its own sake. I am not familiar with Jeter's other books, but I do intend to read some more of his work on the strength of this very excellent novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Barely Literate
Review: I had not a clue what Mr. Jeter was getting at at any point in this book. It was as if the author was trying to imitate William Gibson's disjointed transitions that keep you on your toes, and instead wound up with nonsense. I still don't understand the point, and I am frankly surprised that this made it through the editorial process and into publication.
Rating:
Summary: "Noir" is really something...
Review: I immediately checked the reviews posted here after finishing "Noir," Jeter's latest, indepedent novel and found moments of agreement is practically all of them. Stylistically, "Noir" is a much darker, more Burroughsian version of William Gibson's seminal "Neuromancer"; the prose is wonderful, the characters interesting (if flat), and the plot is appealingly strange. The most intriguing idea at work in this novel is the main character's (a sometimes unbearably tough detective named McNihil...) cybernetically enhanced eyes, which allow him to see the world as if it were a product of the _noir_ aesthetic of the '40s. Unfortunately, Jeter uses this brilliant and wacky notion as a more or less throwaway plot device, when I would have liked to have seen it explored in depth (the existential implications warrant a novel of their own). Summing up, I loved large portions of this gloomy, satiric book and found others borderline tedious (see the distinctly out-of-place rumination on intellectual copyright law). Nevertheless, I admire Jeter's sheer funkiness and his commitment to his nihilistic future.
Rating:
Summary: Insultingly bad
Review: I read cyberpunk science fiction because I'm entertained by ideas. I read detective fiction because I like a good plot. I avoid novels that have a message smuggled in amid formulaic crap. There are two strains of science fiction and detective fiction: - novels written by authors who respect the possibilities of the genre - novels written by authors who think that literary genres are junk, but hope they can redeem themselves by slipping in some clever social commentary This novel is in the second category. Kurt Vonnegut (whom Jeter is imitating in this book) tries to write "good literature" disguised as science fiction. Like Jeter, he doesn't respect science fiction enough to bother thinking through and describing the implications of his ideas. I get the feeling he thinks he is too good a writer to be bothered with having to write science fiction. Incorporating the film-noir detective tradition, as Noir does, in the same condescending way, only makes matters worse. Jeter's tone is that of someone who, not having the wit to compete with the big boys, resorts to sarcasm. I was disappointed and a little angry.
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