Chimera (The Subterrene War, Book 3) (audiobook) by T.C. McCarthy

Published by Blackstone Audio in 2012.
Duration: 10 hours, 57 minutes
Read by John Pruden.

Unabridged.

Chimera is the third installment of new author T.C. McCarthy's remarkable Subterrene War trilogy. This is not an easy trilogy. It has brutal battle scenes, shows the reader an uncomfortable vision of technology pushed too far and asks important questions about what it is to be human. And, on top of that these three books are well-told, hair-raising trips through three different war zones in a truly dysfunctional world.

In Chimera McCarthy introduces a new set of characters, as he does in every book in the series. Stan Resnick is an assassin. He seeks out and executes germline clones created by the American military to be frontline shock troops in Kazakhstan. They are all female (the males cannot be controlled), start fighting at age 16 and are pre-programmed to die at age 18. But, some have fled the war zone and have escaped to countries all over the world, surviving in a pathetic half-rotted state but still astonishingly dangerous. Resnick's job is to find them and execute them discreetly, if possible.

T.C. McCarthy

After a tough mission in which his long-time partner is killed, Resnick is sent home to decompress. Suddenly, he is called back to duty and is offered a mission that is in all probability a suicide mission. He is teamed with a fully human rookie soldier with a genius level knowledge of tactics and strategy because has been trained with new artificial techniques gleaned from the methods used to train the clone soldiers.

Part of the book deals with Resnick's inner demons. He is unhappy with the state of the world, the state of his personal life, the type of man he has become and his new mission. He is prone to drinking binges because he thinks too much and that is the only way he can stop thinking. The tension between the grizzled veteran and the talented rookie is a common theme in books and movies, but McCarthy manages to put his own twist on it and make it work to the story's advantage.

Resnick and his partner are sent to Thailand to find the leader of a colony of clone soldiers that have turned off the genetic programming that makes them die. Their mission is to recruit her to fight against a Chinese army that is invading Southeast Asia. Or, maybe it is to kill her.

Their mission brought to mind Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness as Resnick is escorted along a difficult trail deep into the jungle to complete his mission. The rules change in the jungle and everything boils down to a struggle to survive as they discover the awful new genetic manipulations that pilot new war machines that have been developed by the Chinese military and plans for even worse. At this point the reader realizes that there are two meanings for the title, Chimera. From mythology, you know that a chimera is a mythical animal made of parts of several different animals, a reference to all of these genetic permutations. But, is also a reference to the saying, "Chasing a chimera," or going on a fool's errand because Resnick's mission is unclear and unlikely to succeed.

In the jungle the story becomes a high tech war story with some very powerful questions about what it  means to be human. Is Resnick still human, even though his heart is so hardened that he is really not very different than the clones he hunts? Is his partner human, even though his brain has been tampered with? Are the germline clones human? How about the new genetically modified creatures from China? How about Resnick's "semi-aware" computer that he carries on his back and is his only real friend for most of the book?

And what is McCarthy's answer to this question? It is certainly worth the ride through all three books to find out. This is an amazing first series of books and well worth a read (or a listen).

Interestingly, McCarthy's each book of the Subterrene War trilogy has a different reader, reflecting the three different characters telling their stories. John Pruden read this book and captured the world-weary and grizzled voice of Resnick perfectly. Even better, he has a talent for accents and female characters, helping to make this trilogy an exceptional experience.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Chimera (The Subterrene War)

Reviewed on October 24, 2012

A People's Army (kindle) by T.C. McCarthy

Published in 2012 by Orbit

This short story (Amazon's Kindle Store estimates its length to be about 32 print pages) is the tale of a North Korean tank commander named Choi Chung Ho in a future war against the Americans on a frozen planet. The North Koreans and the Chinese combined forces are taking a beating from an advancing formation of American tanks. There are four people in Choi Chung Ho's damaged tank and two are rookies. His under-gunned, practically crippled tank is the only thing that can prevent the American forces from completely sweeping the field.

Kim Il Sung (1912-1994)

The story of how Choi Chung Ho repairs his tank and goes back into the fight is interesting enough, but McCarthy spices things up by throwing in little tidbits like having the North Koreans cloning Kim Il Sung (the original member of the Kim family to rule North Korea) over and over again to lead North Korea. Kim Il Sung #58 is in charge now. It seems a little crazy at first, but then again, maybe not. North Korea is more than a little odd and they still refer to him as the "Eternal Leader" and his son has been given several posthumous jobs (yes, he still gets work, even though he is quite dead).

T.C. McCarthy

A frequent theme of the story is the ubiquitous presence of the North Korean propaganda machine and how the experienced soldiers just aren't buying it any more. This is not just a North Korean issue - in all wars the propaganda just loses most of its meaning when the bullets are flying and your friends are dying. It is interesting to watch the changes in one of the newbies as the story moves along.

I was also struck by the parallels to the Korean War. One of the most famous battles is the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. At the "Frozen Chosin" we have the position reversed - overwhelmed American forces barely escape an onslaught of Chinese and North Korean troops.

With top rate action and plenty to think on as you read, A People's Army is a great one sitting short story.

I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

You can find this short story on Amazon.com here: A People's Army

Reviewed on June 21, 2012.

Exogene (The Subterrene War, Book 2) by T.C. McCarthy

Published by Orbit in March of 2012

I approach this review with some trepidation. This is a hell of a science fiction novel but to call it a sci-fi novel is to undersell it. It is a hell of a war novel, but to call it a war novel is also underselling it. It really is the story of a woman finding out what it is to love, to be loved and to know where one stands with God - in short, to be human, but that seriously undersells this book and makes a violent tale of war, genetic mutation and out-of-controls science sound like some piece of warm and fuzzy chick lit. Exogene is certainly not that.

So, what is Exogene?

First things first - Exogene is the second book in a series by T.C. McCarthy. Read the first book, Germline, for the background necessary for this book. Germline (see my review by clicking here) explores a future war for trace metals in Kazakhstan between the Russians and the Americans. In Germline a group of cloned teenaged female warriors are introduced to the front line (males are not used because they lost control and became too violent). Exogene is the story of one of those warriors.

The clones are supposed to fight for two years and then they begin to break down mentally and physically and are rounded up to be killed. While they are maturing, they are indoctrinated into a culture of violence and death. Their universe is ruled by a god that rewards killing, rewards dying in battle and despises fear and mercy. In short, these teenaged girls are bred and trained to be pitiless fighting machines.

T.C. McCarthy

Except, they are not machines.

Deep down, they are people...and Exogene is the story of Catherine, a clone soldier that decides she does not want to die when her two years have expired. She questions everything - her religion, the orders she receives and especially the expectation that she is to give up and die because her two years are up.

Exogene takes the reader far from the battlefields of Kazakhstan into Russia, into North and South Korea and beyond. The world of Exogene is seriously screwed up - damaged by nuclear war, cloning soldiers, experimenting with human/robot hybrids and through it all Catherine pushes along: experiencing, thinking and learning what it is to be human.

A remarkable novel. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Exogene (The Subterrene War)

Reviewed on June 1, 2012.

Germline (The Subterrene War, Book 1) (audiobook) by T.C. McCarthy.

Wow!

Read by Donald Corren

Duration: Approximately 9 hours.

Published by Blackstone Audio, 2011.

Unabridged.

T.C. McCarthy’s Germline is a non-stop military techno-adventure set in the middle of a war in Central Asia in the 22^nd century. Russia and the United States are fighting over the resources of Kazakhstan. It turns out that Kazakhstan is rich in rare metals that are needed for the 22^nd century’s technological devices. They have to be mined deep in the mountains of Kazakhstan and the mines, countryside, little villages and cities of Central Asia become battlefields.

Oscar Wendell is a washed-up, drug-addicted reporter for Stars and Stripes. He is the only reporter in the entire theater of war and he is not quite sure how he was picked over better-known reporters. But, he is determined to make the best of his opportunity, already envisioning the Pulitzer Prize as the world’s biggest story unfolds in his lap. He is given some very basic training sent to the front, attached to a unit and outfitted with the latest gear – a self-contained mechanized body suit that provides heat or cooling and even has a rather gruesome system of self-contained waste disposal.

T.C. McCarthy

I mention that system because this book excels at putting the reader (in my case, listener) at the ground level – what famed World War II reporter Ernie Pyle called the “worm’s eye view.” McCarthy’s characters are vivid, earthy and exposed to one insane situation after another – which they can only respond to by going crazy themselves. Some decide to drug themselves, some decide to retreat into themselves, some decide die in battle and others kill themselves. The wide-ranging battlefield leads Wendell from one complicated scenario to another as he drops all pretense of being a reporter and simply fights alongside the men he was supposed to be covering – not because he believes in the cause but because he is so tied to these men that he can that he cannot leave them.

An added dimension is America’s introduction of genetically modified soldiers – all identical and all grown from a test tube and all 16 to 18 year old females (the males were too aggressive) who have been raised in an environment that worships death and sacrifice. Their bodies are programmed to begin to die at the beginning of their 18^th year. The title of the book, Germline, comes from a slang term for the military program that developed these super soldiers. Soon, the Russians have their own genetically modified soldiers (all males) and the war takes on a whole new face. Wendell decides to get close to an American “genetic” and soon finds himself falling for her despite the overt prejudice against them.

Donald Corren reads Germline and he does a great job of covering an amazing number of accents. His voice characterization of Oscar Wendell is perfect – he is loose and jaded and wound too tight all at the same time. The only problem was his inexplicable mispronunciation of the word “corpsmen” – he pronounced it “corzman” when it is pronounced "coreman".

This is a roller coaster of a read. The technology is advanced, but this is not a gizmo-based story. Instead, it is character-driven story and it is well worth the read. It is the first in a trilogy about the war that is supposed to follow the separate experiences of three different characters that interact briefly in all of the books but have their own stories.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Germline (The Subterrene War, Book 1)

Reviewed on September 26, 2011.

Click here to see the review of the second book in the series, Exogene.