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Chimera (The Subterrene War #3)

by T.C. McCarthy (Goodreads Author)

4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 · rating details · 56 ratings · 13 reviews

Escaped Germline soldiers need to be cleaned up, and Stan Resnick is the best man for the job. A job that takes him to every dark spot and every rat hole he can find.

Operatives from China and Unified Korea are gathering escaped or stolen Russian and American genetics, and there are reports of new biological nightmares: half-human things, bred to live their entire lives enc...more

Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages

Published August 1st 2012 by Orbit (first published July 31st 2012)

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May 19, 2013 Mia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I started 'Chimera' with a mix of eagerness and sadness-- eagerness because T.C. McCarthy's 'Subterrene War' series has become a new favorite, sadness in knowing that this is the third and final book in the series. All 3 books -- Germline, Exogene & Chimera -- form a cohesive, symbiotic whole, pieces of a puzzle that fit perfectly. These books are not easy reads, most certainly not light reads. Each book will repeatedly break your heart. The series is a ride through the highways and byways o...more I started 'Chimera' with a mix of eagerness and sadness-- eagerness because T.C. McCarthy's 'Subterrene War' series has become a new favorite, sadness in knowing that this is the third and final book in the series. All 3 books -- Germline, Exogene & Chimera -- form a cohesive, symbiotic whole, pieces of a puzzle that fit perfectly. These books are not easy reads, most certainly not light reads. Each book will repeatedly break your heart. The series is a ride through the highways and byways of pain, doubt, misery, loneliness, self-destruction. They are unsanitized tales of conflict and how pervasive it is, efficiently moving through the veins of everyone involved, directly or indirectly.

All books are first person narratives, each book with a different principal through whose eyes we glimpse the landscape of war. 'Germline' started off with Oscar Wendell, embedded journalist in the frontlines of the war for resources in Kazakhstan. We are introduced to the Germline units -- genetically engineered soldiers tasked with the dirty jobs, wholly dispensable with their built-in expiration date. 'Exogene' continues the story with Catherine, a Germline unit slowly evolving into something far beyond her creators' design. In 'Chimera', we meet Stan Resnick, a Special Forces soldier currently part of a cleanup crew that goes after escaped germline units.

Through Stan's eyes, we get a firsthand look at the frontlines-- the tactics, the weapons, the terrain, the violent skirmishes, the evolved Germline units. When he goes home for a brief hiatus between missions, we learn of what it's like away from the frontlines. Everyone is monitored and everything is highly regulated. The authorities reduce all to statistics and usurp people's right to make choices. There is neither privacy nor autonomy even in one's own home. For the new mission, Stan has a new partner, Jihoon, who provides a good counterpoint. Whereas Stan is a seasoned veteran, Jihoon is on his first mission, still very green, very eager, and very unprepared for what awaits him on the frontlines. Through their interaction, we are watching a soldier's transformation, a sort of before and after tableau. Jihoon is the picture of a soldier yet untouched by war while Stan is what a soldier becomes after war has gotten a tight grip on him.

Reports of Chinese and Korean operatives scavenging germline units for some unknown purpose alarm U.S. authorities. More troubling are rumors of their creation of new genetics -- human-mechanical hybrid constructs. This is Stan's new mission which takes him into Thailand, a country embroiled in a conflict with the Chinese. The Thai line is being held by Germline units led by Margaret whom we first met in 'Exogene'. Since we last met her, Margaret has become both tactical and religious leader to the genetics. Stan must find Margaret to obtain information on the whereabouts of a scientist, Dr. Chen, who may unlock the mystery of the new genetic hybrids. This is not an easy mission for Stan. His wartime experiences and his years of hunting down genetics engendered a deep hatred of them in Stan. He'd sooner kill them than talk to them, much less work with them.

A soldier for twenty years, Stan has seen more than his share of wars, his body and mind riddled with scars. He's a survivor, a creature of marked resilience. He endures not necessarily due to a heroic nature but more to wave both middle fingers at death. He doesn't relish living but he'll be damned if he gets killed in some stupid way or as a pawn of some self-serving bureaucrat.

Stan has spent more time on the frontlines than at home. He is more comfortable in his combat suit in the jungle than he is in the sanitized house he shares with his wife with its automated regulatory systems. His war experience colors the way he sees everything. It upends what is conventionally perceived as normal or real. East is west, up is down, peace is uncomfortable, war is familiar. What Stan has seen, he cannot unsee. There are places you cannot leave behind regardless of how far you run. It is inside you, part of you.

"Being shown the truth like that was like having a one-way ticket to Mars, and once you stepped on board, there wasn't a return flight to the real world."

Perhaps nobody gets to go home again really. Oscar is forever changed, Catherine has evolved far beyond her programming, Stan can imagine no life beyond the jungle. Without giving it away, I'll say that 'Chimera' provides a fitting end to 'The Subterrene War' series. Stan resolves his personal dilemma in the only real way he could. He is finally able to acknowledge and accept the man he's become. Further, without need of a future installment, we get a strong sense from the ending of what will likely happen to McCarthy's world as a result of what was begun in 'Germline'.

I think T.C. McCarthy has a philosopher's soul, a scientist's mind and a storyteller's heart. I won't presume to tell you what McCarthy wanted to say with this series but my personal takeaway is this: War extends far beyond the battlefields. It is a state of mind from which there can be no escaping. The consequences of any given action can potentially grow exponentially, wholly unpredictable and irreversible after set in motion. The best laid plans almost always turn to sh**.(less)

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Nov 03, 2012 Benjamin Cheah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Chimera is a fitting end to a dark trilogy. This novel covers and closes the story threads picked up in the previous two stories, tying all three stories together. It is a grim, steely-eyed look at a future of constant industrial war, with nations snatching for strategic resources and redefining humanity through genetic and biological engineering. The prose is sharp and taut, the action scenes brutal and unflinching, and the characters engaging.

Where the story fails at is military and military s...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Impressive end to an impressive trilogy.

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

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 dif...more Impressive end to an impressive trilogy.

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

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.

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 movie, but McCarthy manages to put his own twist on it and make it work to the story's advantage...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/...(less)

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Sep 18, 2012 Julia Nolan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Chimera is the kind of book that reminds me why I love reading. It didn't change my life or make me think new and amazing things (hence the 4 vs. 5 stars), but it was a legitimately enjoyable ride from beginning to end. I suspect that virtually anyone who likes military science fiction set in distopian worlds will really enjoy it.

The plot is beautifully paced and quite engaging. Stan Resnick (code named Bug)'s job is cleaning up satos – teenaged girls genetically engineered to be perfect warrior...more Chimera is the kind of book that reminds me why I love reading. It didn't change my life or make me think new and amazing things (hence the 4 vs. 5 stars), but it was a legitimately enjoyable ride from beginning to end. I suspect that virtually anyone who likes military science fiction set in distopian worlds will really enjoy it.

The plot is beautifully paced and quite engaging. Stan Resnick (code named Bug)'s job is cleaning up satos – teenaged girls genetically engineered to be perfect warriors. It's pretty much all he knows how to do, as evidenced by repeated failures to deal with civilian life. (Which are drawn out in a way that makes you feel genuinely sympathetic to him, while leaving virtually no doubt as to why his wife would leave him as soon as she got the chance.) At some point, he's called onto a new mission – to follow around Jihoon, a previously office bound intelligence analyst – to figure out what would cause the Koreans to break a treaty against genetic research with a mysterious project code named “Sunshine”. Their adventures take them about the globe and eventually ally them with the most unlikely of people – a group of satos set on a holy crusade that is intertwined with Sunshine and more grotesque experiments on the part of the Chinese. This may not inherently sound all that exciting – but the plot had me riveted, with unexpected twists and turns and enough tension that I found myself repeatedly saying, “Just one more chapter before I go to sleep...”

More than the plot, though, I legitimately liked the characters. Bug was utterly believable as a cold, jaded killer who hopes for more...yet sort of realizes that he's almost as perfect a killing machine as the girls he hunts. Despite in many ways being an abhorrent character, he's sympathetic, with hints as to how he became the monster he is. (And this is hard to do – so many writers tackling a similar character would make them utterly unsympathetic or some sort of emo pity case. This didn't happen here, which I suspect is very hard to do, considering how many times I've seen similar characters fail.) His partner, Jihoon, is also delightfully fleshed out, as a weasly bureaucrat who is in waaay over his head. (Although I might have liked more insight as to his motives and desires, as he struck me as an interesting character who never got the time to fully bloom.)

The world is also well fleshed out, with technologies that feel utterly plausible and a totalitarian government that felt believable. While it's not really new ground (apocalyptic, totalitarian worlds with genetically engineered monstrosities isn't exactly an idea that's never been considered in science fiction), the degree of detail and the realism of the details differentiated Chimera from a lot of books that had me rolling my eyes with their bad technology or world building.

So my over all review is that I really liked this book. (Enough that I bought the earlier two in the series and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of novel.) It's intelligent, realistic, gruesome and a highly enjoyable read that's hard to put down from beginning to end.(less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Paul Nelson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favourites, 2012-books-read

The final book of the the subterrene war trilogy and another gritty read. The war in Kazakhstan is over, Stan Resnick a veteren soldier is employed by special operations to hunt and kill escaped germline soldiers and harbours an intense hatred for the non human's.
Margaret is one of the germlines to escape from the war to Thailand, where the spoiling process is reversed and in return she and the other germlines swear allegiance to the king of Thailand.
Margaret is revered by all the germlines as...more

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May 01, 2013 Nicole L Bates rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sff

Chimera, the third and final story in T.C. McCarthy’s Subterrene War trilogy, is definitely my favorite of the three novels. I found Stan Resnick, a.k.a. “Bug”, to be the most intriguing of the three different main characters in the series. Stan has spent his entire military career thus far hunting escaped Germline units. Now he finds himself on a mission which forces him to work in cooperation with the genetically engineered female warriors to stop an even greater threat.

I’m impressed with the...more

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Nov 30, 2012 Timothy Ward rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: military-sf, science-fiction

I finished this book a few months ago, but have been sitting on this review because I have such mixed feelings about it. I settled on 4 stars because it is written just as well as the other books in the series, but where this one fell short for me was in the likability of the main character.

Stan Resnick is a Special Forces operative in a war that has brought Big Brother out into the open across the world as nations fight tooth and nail for the last natural resources and best military technology....more I finished this book a few months ago, but have been sitting on this review because I have such mixed feelings about it. I settled on 4 stars because it is written just as well as the other books in the series, but where this one fell short for me was in the likability of the main character.

Stan Resnick is a Special Forces operative in a war that has brought Big Brother out into the open across the world as nations fight tooth and nail for the last natural resources and best military technology. After his wife gives him one of the rawest of deals, all he has left is his job as a mercenary out in the jungle, where Big Brother can't watch his every move. His best friend is the A.I. in his specially designed suit and the guy he has to work with is a product of Big Brother.

The action and in-your-face brutality is as top-notch as the first two books, and has some unforgettable futuristic battle scenarios (jungle battles with flame throwers vs. invisible, metallic dogs anyone?). The series has built up showing us more about the abilities of these advanced soldiers, and T.C. doesn't disappoint in showing the ferocity and stealthiness of the chimeras. I was a little disappointed in the ending not having a more full-scale war, but that isn't what this story is about, nor is this the end of T.C.'s stories in this world.

T.C. has a tremendous gift in writing a cohesive character arc that builds toward a powerful ending. The raw deal that happens to him at the beginning of the story involves an innocent boy. Stan's character arc is of a man who just wants to get lost in the jungle and hunt the abominable genetics, but when he realizes that forsaking his mission could ruin that innocent boy's life, he has to put his needs second before he loses his mind. I really liked this about him. My likability concern was that during the story he makes a lot of despicable and selfish decisions, and those were hard to root for him through. Yes you're reading in hopes of him making the right decision in the end, but it takes a while and wasn't always something I had to read. The other two books had flawed characters, but they were more engaging (maybe because they were less selfish). I liked how this story explored life in the U.S., and really opened up the consequences of this war on non-military people. This aspect of the story was well-placed because of the added burden it placed on Stan to fight for others.

T.C.'s first book, Germline, was one of the best books, if not the best, I've ever read, so to say that I didn't like this one as much isn't really very critical. Reading other people's reviews and seeing them say this book was their favorite shows that you have a very talented writer who tells three different stories through three different people, but who are all linked to this war and their inability to escape the addiction that war created in them. The philosophical depth to their turmoil is also relevant enough to make their journeys life changing for ordinary people who prefer reading about future wars than having to suffer through the realities that would kill them before sunset. In the case of T.C.'s Subterrene War series, I felt every cut and tear. I loved being able to experience that without having to endure the permanence of their scars.

(less)

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Oct 03, 2012 Bane of Kings rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, orbit, 2012-releases-read, notable-2012-releases, 25-best-2012-releases

“A fast paced, gripping novel that delivers an explosive, satisfying conclusion to Tc McCarthy’s Subterrene War Trilogy. Amazing stuff.” ~The Founding Fields

The Subterrene War Trilogy’s opener, Germline, if I remember correctly, was one of the first few novels that I received for review outside of tie-in fiction and it’s been a fantastic ride right the way through. Exogene was a stunning follow up that didn’t let me down, and now – having read Chimera in a super quick time, having not being able...more “A fast paced, gripping novel that delivers an explosive, satisfying conclusion to Tc McCarthy’s Subterrene War Trilogy. Amazing stuff.” ~The Founding Fields

The Subterrene War Trilogy’s opener, Germline, if I remember correctly, was one of the first few novels that I received for review outside of tie-in fiction and it’s been a fantastic ride right the way through. Exogene was a stunning follow up that didn’t let me down, and now – having read Chimera in a super quick time, having not being able to put it down, I am pleased to say that Tc McCarthy has written three brilliant novels that will leave me eagerly anticipating any future works by him, whether it be in his already established universe or in a new setting. Although it may not be a perfect read, it sure as hell is a entertaining one, and something that I haven’t heard any negative reception for from the whole trilogy, which is a great achievement especially as it’s Tc McCarthy’s debut trilogy.

"Escaped Germline soldiers need to be cleaned up, and Stan Resnick is the best man for the job. A job that takes him to every dark spot and every rat hole he can find.

Operatives from China and Unified Korea are gathering escaped or stolen Russian and American genetics, and there are reports of new biological nightmares: half-human things, bred to live their entire lives encased in powered armor suits.

Stan fights to keep himself alive and out of prison while he attempts to capture a genetic, one who will be able to tell him everything he needs to know about an newer threat, the one called “Project Sunshine.”

Chimera is the third and final volume of The Subterrene War Trilogy, which tells the story of a single war from the perspective of three different combatants. The first two volumes, GERMLINE and EXOGENE, are available now."

Chimera, despite being in the same universe as Germline and Exogene, and even featuring a character from Exogene, manages to feel just as new and refreshing as Exogene did to Germline. We’ve had three characters to guide us on our tale over the course of the trilogy, and they’ve each been entirely different. First, Germline gave us Oscar Wendell, a war journalist. Then we got a view into the Germline soldiers themselves, with Catherine, and finally - Chimera has given us Stan Resnick, another male protagonist, but shares more in common with Catherine than Oscar. He’s a hunter of escaped Germline soldiers, and it’s interesting to see how he develops over the course of the novel. Having a novel told only from the first person perspective of one character, it’s always going to be a bit of a risk – if the reader doesn’t enjoy the narrative, then chances are, they’re not going to like the novel. But Tc McCarthy has improved on his first-person narrative over the course of the trilogy, and delivers an astounding conclusion to The Subterrene War.

Read the full Review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/10/...(less)

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Nov 13, 2012 Liam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, science-fiction

Probably the weakest of the Subterrene books, but still a fantastic read. Great perspective to view the world from.

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Sep 19, 2012 Justin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-release, hachette, read-2012, science-fiction

http://www.staffersbookreview.com/201...

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Sep 23, 2012 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: military-fiction, science-fiction

Definitely an enjoyable read; slip sliding through Bug's mind as the story unfolds.

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Nov 16, 2012 Melvin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent read, waiting for more.

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Nov 13, 2012 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, swapped

The best of the trilogy.

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About T.C. McCarthy

T.C. McCarthy is a critically acclaimed southern author whose short fiction has appeared in Per Contra: The International Journal of the Arts, Literature and Ideas, in Story Quarterly and in Nature. His debut novel, Germline, and its sequel, Exogene are available worldwide and the final book of the trilogy, Chimera, will be released in August 2012. In addition to being an author, T.C. is a PhD sci...more

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