Chimera - Softcover

Shetterly, Will

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312875436 ISBN 13: 9780312875435

Publisher: Tor Books, 2001

Synopsis

From the author of Dogland, a dark new vision of the future of gene-splicing and artificial intelligence

Will Shetterly has created a dark and intriguing future for this novel, a world of genetic engineering and cloning where human and animal genes can be melded to create chimeras, more often referred to as critters. These beings are human, for all practical purposes. They think, they feel, they love, and they dream. But they still have some of the qualities of the animals that they are bred from.

Most importantly, they are not granted the rights of humans. They are property. Slavery has been revived in America.

But there is also a movement for Abolition, for the granting of legal rights to chimeras. Zoe Domingo is a jaguar-woman, created to be a sex-slave. Instead, she became the property of an abolitionist, and was freed, though she remained as her former owners companion. But on a trip to Los Angeles, Zoes mentor is murdered under violent and mysterious circumstances, and Zoe is accused of the crime.

About this title

Review

Private investigator Chase Maxwell is about to lose the rent in a poker game when a beautiful, mysterious woman walks into his life. He learns too late that his new employer, Zoe Domingo, is a chimera, a "critter," a genetic-engineered mix of human and animal genes. Chimeras have no rights--they are animals, property--and Zoe has no protection now that her human mentor has been murdered. Maxwell must help Zoe find the murderer, a relentless and powerful enemy, before they, too, are killed.

The mean streets of Raymond Chandler's L.A. stretch into a dark and dangerous future in Will Shetterly's transgenre novel, the SF mystery Chimera. The concept of intelligent animal-human hybrids is as old as H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau, but Shetterly bravely makes explicit the parallels between his chimeras and the pre-Civil War status of African-Americans, and he is rarely heavy-handed. A thought-provoking, hard-boiled page-turner, Chimera should please both science fiction and detective fiction fans. --Cynthia Ward

About the Author

Will Shetterly lives in Bisbee, Arizona, with his beloved wife, Emma Bull, and his tolerated cat, Buddha. (They didn't name him. They don't know who Buddha fooled into thinking he was enlightened.) He writes novels, screenplays, short stories, and comic books. He's proudest of Dogland-your mileage may vary. He thinks his two best short stories are "The Princess Who Kicked Butt" and "Dream Catcher."

In 1994, he ran for Governor of Minnesota and finished third in a field of six. It really isn't worth watching Toxic Zombies to see his very brief appearance in a very bad movie.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312875436
• ISBN 13: 9780312875435
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 285