Sims, Book 3: Meerm

F. Paul Wilson, a practicing physician as well as the bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series, turns his attention to the day after tomorrow and shows us how genetic engineering might change the world.Just a few hundred genes separate humans from chimpanzees. Imagine someone altering the chimp genome, splicing in human genes to increase the size of the cranium, reduce the amount of body hair, enable speech. What sort of creature would result?Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated. A world where dangerous or boring manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims," genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human. The chief innovator in this world is SimGen, which owns the patent on the sim genome and has begun leasing the creatures worldwide. But SimGen is not quite what it seems. It has secrets . . . secrets beyond patents and proprietary processes . . . secrets it will go to any lengths to protect. Sims explores this brave new world as it is turned upside down and torn apart when lawyer Patrick Sullivan decides to try to unionize the sims.Right now, as you read these words, some company somewhere in the world is toying with the chimp genome. That is not fiction, it is fact. Sims is a science thriller that will come true. One way or another.

From Publishers Weekly

Things are heating up for SimGen, the company that created chimpanzees "enhanced" with human DNA, in this tightly constructed, action-packed third installment from Wilson (after 2001's Sims: Book Two: The Portero Method). The SimGen head of security clearly has his own agenda, an apparent mole is causing trouble, a missing sim (the eponymous Meerm) holds a secret of vital importance and a lawsuit threatens to unmask a money trail that may shed light on the firm's seemingly unsavory beginnings. Last seen with his life mostly ruined after an attempt to unionize a group of sims results in their murder, Patrick Sullivan brings the personal injury lawsuit, abetted by the alluring Romy Cadman, who seems to have every man in the story pining after her. Patrick and Romy are also working on the case of a torched "globulin farm," where sims were given diseases and those who survived were milked for the immunity that their blood carried. The missing Meerm was one of those survivors. The ongoing humanizing of Zero the anti-SimGen leader who sets Romy and Patrick's agendas will spark further curiosity about his identity among fans familiar with the earlier books. The bizarre behavior of one of the SimGen brothers will call his motives into question. As the saga grows more complex, readers will avidly stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of Patrick, Romy, Zero and the SimGen brothers.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reviews

News