One of the more recent books in the Akashic Noir anthology series, Sydney Noir, is an excellent addition, with 14 hard-boiled crime stories, each set in a particular Sydney neighborhood. Naturally, some stories are stronger than others, but all of the stories in this volume were enjoyable and well-written. I'll definitely be looking for more books in this series.

(Note: This Advance Reading Copy was provided to my by the publisher as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer.) ( )

This is one of my favorites out of the Akashic Noir series. It's divided into 3 sections: Family Matters, Sex And The City and Criminal Justice. I enjoyed all of the stories, but Sex And The City is my favorite section. ( )

pretty lame ( )

I want to fully admit that my three star rating is probably greatly my fault--this being the third "Noir" collection I've read, I should clearly stop receiving them for review because they're just not up my alley. I rated each story individually as I read them, and the average was a little under a 3. The collection is divided up into three sections, generally about Family, Sex, and Criminal Justice. Family, for me, was the best of the three. A few 4's in there: "Good Boy, Bad Girl;" "In The Dunes;" and "In the Court of The Lion King."

I'm not puritanical but I'm not a huge fan of graphic sex in my literature, and I see plenty of crime in my job so it doesn't hit me as dark or jarring as it's probably meant to. The family section was primarily what appealed to me--I'll stop reading these Noir books now. Again, no knock to the genre, just a personal preference.

I'm going to be honest, parts of this made me chuckle. But even for a sci-fi comedy, some of the dialogue was pretty unbelievable (think Hitchhiker's Guide but less clever), and I really didn't enjoy the world building that let so many fantastical technologies all be developed at the same time to be incorporated in one cyber-partner for our protagonist. I am a big sci-fi fan, but the introduction of technology into this world was implausible and poorly done. The story was fun, but not enough to draw me in past the dialogue and other issues. Unrelated: I LOVE the cover, so kudos there.

**I received a free Advance Reader Copy of this book in exchange for this unbiased review (and I'm sorry it took me so long to provide that review--since having kids my brain power allocated to reading has been severely handicapped).** ( )

The stories in this volume of the endless series are consistently well-written and do a great job of invoking the Sydney-area locations. But they are almost unremittingly grim, often nihilistic, and not that entertaining. After reading it, it is the setting that stick in my mind, not the characters or plots. ( )