Asimov’s Chimera by Mark W. Tidemann

Chimera book cover

Chimera opens up with a flashback to twenty-five years ago to the scene kidnapping of twenty babies from a hospice center. Back at present day, Coren Lanra, security chief for Rega Looms at DyNan Corporation, is working on tracking the actions of Rega’s daughter Nyom. Unfortunately, Nyom ends up dead along with all those she was attempting to help smuggle to the settler colony Nova Levis. The only possible clue lies in the brain of a robot that locked up while trying to save the passengers. Surprisingly, Ariel and Derec are encouraged to help Coren in his investigation by Ambassador Setaris Coren is forced to follow his own leads while Derec attempts to recover the failed robot’s memories. The following investigation eventually reveals the link to the kidnappings, with danger at almost every turn.

Overall, I would say that this second book has a much more complicated set of plot lines than Mirage. I like the Coren Lanra character the best out of all the others in this series. He’s a man of integrity that does what needs to be done without worrying about the consequences to him. The technology he uses for his investigation is very interesting and seems to fit well into the time period. I can see how some of his little gadgets might actually exist some day considering the way nanotechnology is coming along. The gadgets seemed a bit more futuristic when this book was published in 2001. This book also seemed to focus a lot less on Three Law conflicts than Mirage. I would say that is a compliment because some times these “authorized” novels can sometimes focus on them to the point of being repetitive. Mark W. Tiedemann seems to realize that if someone is reading this they probably know the Three Laws inside and out already.

Further discussion of plot points: ***Note Possible spoilers for Chimera, The Naked sun, Robots and Empire, and Robot City series***

As stated in my previous review the Solarians are reclusive to the point that ANY human contact is repulsive. Tiedemann appears to try and cover for this with the following sentence, “To be sure, those Solarians living here did not share the degree of paranoia exhibited … but they still came across as standoffish and mistrustful.” (Chapter 8, pg 123) Also Coren remembers that Solarians have an “aversion to being touched” (Chapter 15, pg. 242) when the Solarian ambassador fails to shake his hand. Anyone that hasn’t read The Naked Sun might not realize that these statements are a bit of an understatement. Almost all Solarians are afraid to even see another in person, except for specified times to meet with their spouse. From what I remember Gladia was one of the few Solarians to leave and her willingness to “See” (in person) people was considered perverse.

Another problem is with Derec saying, “It’s the first place (Earth) I really came to know after I recovered from amnemonic plague (Burundi’s Fever). I may as well have been born here.” (Chapter 11, pg 178) From the Robot City novels the doctors on Earth were amazed with Derec because he had antibodies but had never actually had the disease. His hospitalization was due to the interference of the “chemfets” that were injected into Derec back on Robot City before he and Ariel escaped. His memory loss was later found to be caused by insane father, Dr. Avery, in an attempt to keep him from Ariel/Katherine.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please prove you are a human * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Post

Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy ZahnThrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

HeirToTheEmpire.jpg
HeirToTheEmpire” by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

When I heard about production of Star Wars Episode VII and the ensuing controversy about the Expanded Universe vs canon, I started thinking about reading Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy again. I first read the books almost 25 years ago! I decided that I didn’t really care if the new movies conflicted with the books. I remembered being blown away, so figured they were worth reading again. These books were a very important to me at the time because it was my first real taste of Star Wars outside of the theatrical films. There were other books released before this, but the Thrawn Trilogy marked the resurgence of my interest in Star Wars.

I’ll admit that I’ve been a bad reviewer and powered through the series without stopping to write my reviews. I normally read on my lunch breaks at work and have not had hardly any time outside of work and family life to devote to reviews as I did just a few years ago.

After reading just a few chapters of Heir to the Empire, I realized that there was quite a bit that I didn’t remember, including a rather large plot line that ran through the last two books (Dark Force Rising and The Last Command). Toward the end of The Last Command, I came across a huge plot twist that I had absolutely no memory of until just before it was revealed. I’m simply amazed at how much of this series I couldn’t remember. In a way, it was a blessing because I almost experienced the book for the first time again. This was kind of weird for me as I always thought I had an excellent memory when it came to books. I gave my wife a hard time about not remembering some fairly important stuff in the Wheel of Time series, despite her reading it at least 3 times through from beginning to end as new books came out. At the time I had only read the series once through. (more…)

Contact by Carl SaganContact by Carl Sagan

Contact Book Cover

If I remember correctly, I saw Contact (the movie) in the theater when it came out. I enjoyed it and always wondered how it compared to the book. It turned out that my future wife owned the book, but I didn’t get around reading it until now. Of course movies rarely ever measure up to the novels they are based on, and this was no exception. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was good, however it just scratched upon the surface of what the novel contains. (more…)

Brave New World by Aldous HuxleyBrave New World by Aldous Huxley

Book Cover

My wife was surprised that I had never read Brave New World. It seemed to her that this novel by Aldous Huxley was generally considered required reading in school. She ordered it for me along with 1984 by George Orwell, which by coincidence I haven’t read either. It seems that I somehow went to the wrong schools as a kid, and missed out on some classics. I’m trying to remedy this.

I wouldn’t really call Brave New World a sci-fi novel. It’s more of a criticism of utopian society. The setting is in London around 2540 AD, where society is broken down into castes. Human reproduction is done in a “hatchery” where babies are created in bottles and subjected to varying conditions in order to guide development into one of the five classes (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon). Aside from modifying biological factors, each child is “trained” with techniques ranging from aversion therapy to repeating phrases over and over when they sleep.

(more…)