The world of the Simes and Gens is teetering on the brink. Zeth Farris reaches adulthood just when things start to fall apart. When he finally understands the audacity of the social engineering experiment that his parents have set in motion, Zeth must build bridges with potential allies to hold the center together. But war comes anyway, and Zeth and his alliance must prevail. The price of failure?--the destruction of his family, his culture, even his world! Sime~Gen, Book Five.
Jean Lorrah is a science fiction and fantasy author. She has produced several Star Trek novels and often collaborated with Jacqueline Lichtenberg. Her most recent work with Lichtenberg is on the Sime - Gen Universe. Her fantasy series The Savage Empire, from the 1980s, is mostly solo work. She is also a professor of English at Murray State University and received her PhD from Florida State University.
I entered this world of Sime-Gen with the book First Channel. It gave me a wild ride through the desperate struggles in the character's lives. And I was hooked, happy to have the ride. In this book the journey continues with the children as they are learning how to bring about the dream of their parents. I wept with them and watched them grow. Many thanks to the authors.
In the far future a mutation develops and humankind is split into Simes and Gens. Simes "change over" at adolescence into vampire-like creatures that must suction off energy from Gens every month. Ordinarily, this causes the death of the Gen. But then "Channels" are discovered who could safely take energy from Gens and give that energy to Simes. Zeth is the son of the first such channel, Rimon, and a Gen mother, and born into a community struggling to find a new way for both kinds of humanity to live together without killing each other. Both Lichtenberg and Lorrah who write books in this series and wrote this book together are both good storytellers and create characters to care about. And since each book was written to be read independently, this one can stand alone.
I read this book a long time ago, but it was a great book. Keep an open mind and when you have finished the book think about their relationships and action in relation to religon. But this is a REALLY GREAT BOOK!!!
According to Wikipedia, this is the second book chronologically speaking, and the fifth book published. Another wonderful book in the Sime/Gen series, second in the chronology. Rimon and Kadi's son, Zeth must learn to be a Channel and lead his people.