Titanium Noir cover art

Titanium Noir

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Titanium Noir

By: Nick Harkaway
Narrated by: Davis Brooks
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 A virtuosic mashup of Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler by way of Marvel - the story of a detective investigating the murder of a Titan, one of society's most powerful, medically-enhanced elites.

'A highly entertaining, satisfying blend of classic detective noir and inventive speculative fiction' the Guardian

'Cross-genre brilliance from the superbly talented Nick Harkaway' William Gibson, New York Times best-selling author of Agency

Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So when he's called in to investigate a homicide at a local apartment, he is surprised at first to see that the victim appears to be a rather typical techie. But on closer inspection, he finds the victim is over seven feet tall. And even though he doesn't look a day over thirty, he is actually ninety years old. Clearly, he is a Titan - one of this dystopian, near-future society's genetically-altered elites.

There are only a few thousand Titans worldwide, all thanks to Stefan Tonfamecasca's discovery of the controversial T7 genetic therapy, which elevated his family to near godlike status. A dead Titan is big news . . . a murdered Titan is unimaginable. But Titans are Cal's specialty. In fact, his ex-girlfriend, Athena, is a Titan. And not just any Titan - she's Stefan's daughter, heir to the Tonfamecasca empire.

As Cal digs deeper into the murder investigation, he begins to unravel the complicated threads of what should have been a straightforward case, and it soon becomes clear he's on the trail of a crime whose roots run deep into the dark heart of the world. Titanium Noir is a tightly woven, intricate tale of murder, betrayal, and vengeance.

'I picked up Titanium Noir and then it returned the favor, sending me reeling with thrilling velocity through Nick Harkaway's latest world of dark wonders until it set me down at the last fine Harkaway sentence with all the lightness, strength, and brilliance of its hard bright titular element' Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winning author

'Titanium Noir blends the best of the science fiction and crime genres to create something vibrant and new. Captivating from start to finish' the Big Issue©2023 Nick Harkaway (P)2023 Hachette Audio UK Crime Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Fiction Mythology Ancient Greece Greek Mythology Cyberpunk Technology Thriller Murder

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Tigerman cover art
Blinded by the Lights cover art
Elder Race cover art
Starter Villain cover art
Nightmare Carnival cover art
The Immortality Thief cover art
Point B cover art
The Last Exit cover art
The Sinful: A Leroy Cutter Novel cover art
A Man with One of Those Faces cover art
Footsteps in the Dark cover art
The Well of Eternity: Blizzard Legends cover art
Curious Beginnings cover art
Planetside cover art
Singapore Sapphire cover art
In Plain Sight cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I was thoroughly drawn in by the mystery, and enjoyed the world that this story happens in immensely. I read another title by this author before (Gnomon) which has become one of my favourite books of all time, so I went in with high expectations, and they were met. Would recommend.

Enthralling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
🎧 Davis Brookes sold the noir vibe perfectly!! His choices for our protagonist were excellent - wry, weary, knowing but still hopeful. However, his vocal variety was limited (pitch, timbre, accents, cadence) and the narrator did not emote enough to add fury to fights, appeal to romance or convey grief, pride and confessions. While the narration lacked vibrancy, Mr Brookes' sound and pacing was perfect.

📚 The way the story was told mattered as much as the story being told. The turns of phrasing were delicious and fight scenes sounded classy - not just WWE smackdowns and furious brawls! l was disappointed with the underwhelming exploration of the Titan world | conceits, character tropes and meh murder investigation? But as TN was stylish fun, it was fabulous listening!

Stylish Noir

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I've always loved the Nick Harkaway books because they cleverly make the reader/listener feel so deeply whilst taking them on a whirlwind adventure. Sadly, I feel that "Titanium Noir" missed the mark in this respect. I felt nothing for the welfare of the protagonist nor the other characters. Perhaps the expert narration of Matt Bates would've saved this production as this voice actor was wooden in his delivery. <sigh>

Lacked emotion

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The writing is quick witted and moves along nicely. He’s Philip Marlow in the 20 century…. Sort of ! Its pulp fiction…. And It worked for me!

Marlow for the 20th Century

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dashiel Hammet meets Philip K Dick. Great story well written and well read in this audiobook from Nick Harkaway. Very entertaining.

Future noir!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Hope this the first in a series because I devoured TN in just a few sessions.

Great concept, brilliantly delivered

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant narrator drawing you into the great story . Well paced and original storyline . Highly Recommend

Narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Clearly no-one should look closely at the science. Also very little world-building here and characters are a little flat. Short enough to hold my interest and touched on some themes of morality in an age of immortality (arguably explored in more depth by the TV series Altered Carbon.) Rather irritated by the very obvious red herring and a rather tenuous plot point but pretty good narration. Not sure I’d bother with a sequel though.

Solid but not stellar sci-fi

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm truly biased, Nick Harkaway is a legendary writer, this story, the narrative and performance are exquisite. I'm about to listen all over again.

perfection

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Harkaway is an absolute phenomenon. In ‘Karla’s Choice’ he perfectly replicates his father Le Carré’s spy novel style and elegant plotting. Here he merges noir and science fiction, making a deep bow to Dashiel Hammet. The character of Doublewide is a flat-out hommage to Gutman in the Maltese Falcon and would ideally be voiced in the cadences of Sidney Greenstreet in the Bogart movie. How Harkaway can write like his father in one book and produce perfect hard-boiled detective dialogue in another would shame lesser writers to silence. Monumental.

The extraordinary noir detective dialogue.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews