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The Hormone Jungle
Recounts the futuristic story of Steward, a warrior and troubleshooter for hire, who inadvertently becomes the protector of a beautiful android girl with mysterious abilities
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 21, 2021
A Man with a Past steps into save a girl with No Past from trouble, only to end up in more pain and trouble than he realizes. The Plot is as Old as Pulp mags. Old as Detective Whodunits. But Robert Reed puts a stamp on a Future that is not Dystopian, but wondrous and simply elegant in it's plausibility because the people who inhabit this future are just like you and me. And just like you and me, they all have the chance to get involved in Other People's Business when they know they shouldn't. . . and suffer the consequences.
January 23, 2021
As an avaricious young woman, Chiffon was adept at deception, but a terrible accident causes her mind to be transferred as a Ghost, to live a grey half life. In a clever scheme her Ghost mind is transferred to a pleasure cyborg known as a Flower and her client is a wealthy crime lord, Dirk. When the opportunity arises Chiffon absconds with a lot of Dirk’s wealth in the form of quiver chips, hidden in her thigh. Steward is a Freestater, a warrior who has been banished from Yellowknife, who is drawn into Chiffon’s sphere and used opportunistically to delay or even kill Dirk. Under the pheremonal influence of Chiffon, Steward convinces some augmented miners from Morning, led by Gabbro, to assist in a daring scheme to warn Dirk off, but Steward does not know just how much money is at stake nor to what lengths Chiffon will go to keep it before her 5 month lifespan ends. It’s a heist story but it’s a brilliant one. Robert Reed keeps a lot of balls in the air but they keep the story flowing nicely until a very satisfactory ending (with one exception). For an early novel it is lushly drawn and enlivened. RECOMMENDED.
May 23, 2014
Better than his debut.
In fact the world building is excellent. Might my favourite far future Cyberpunk setting I've read so far. You have flying taxis and invisibility shields. You have characters such as heat resistant cyborgs from Venus, hippies from garden of eden-esque space colonies, and uploaded post-humans on the internet. The setting is also 100% urban and gives strong Blade Runner vibes.
Then why only 7/10?
What brings it down is s plot about money, women, and gangsters. Like we haven't had enough of those already! That, and probably it has too many POV characters that slow down the pace with their flashbacks.
This is still early days for Reed (second novel? might even be his first from the copyright date) but it's a long way from the masterpiece that is "An Exaltation of Larks".
P.S.
The science is very loose. The moon is terraformed and gives off a green glow...yeah as if that will ever happen.
Fabulous setting though.
In fact the world building is excellent. Might my favourite far future Cyberpunk setting I've read so far. You have flying taxis and invisibility shields. You have characters such as heat resistant cyborgs from Venus, hippies from garden of eden-esque space colonies, and uploaded post-humans on the internet. The setting is also 100% urban and gives strong Blade Runner vibes.
Then why only 7/10?
What brings it down is s plot about money, women, and gangsters. Like we haven't had enough of those already! That, and probably it has too many POV characters that slow down the pace with their flashbacks.
This is still early days for Reed (second novel? might even be his first from the copyright date) but it's a long way from the masterpiece that is "An Exaltation of Larks".
P.S.
The science is very loose. The moon is terraformed and gives off a green glow...yeah as if that will ever happen.
Fabulous setting though.
September 2, 2020
This is a complex action-adventure, post-cyberpunk clotted future solar system story. I enjoyed it and may read it again.
That said, it is a busy novel and may not appeal to you if you don't like post-cyberpunk, hyperfuturism.
That said, it is a busy novel and may not appeal to you if you don't like post-cyberpunk, hyperfuturism.
March 3, 2010
I really like this guy! Oh, I think that's what I said in the last review...
October 10, 2013
'TWO THOUSAND YEARS INTO THE FUTURE, YOU CAN CREATE A GENETICALLY-TAILORED LOVER, BUT SOME THINGS WILL NEVER CHANGE…
Steward is a freestater – a descendant of Amerindian warriors – sometime bodyguard and security advisor. Chiffon is an android Flower, a courtesan created to give pleasure, and yet she is far more than that. Trying to escape her crimelord master, Dirk, she enlists Steward’s help, in the steamy equatorial city of Brulé.
In a universe where humans are as altered as their terraformed planets and moons, Robert Reed’s thrilling yet thoughtful story plays itself out, against a richly-textured backdrop which is both colourful and totally believable.'
Blurb from the 1989 Orbit edition
Miss Luscious Chiffon is a Flower; a Flower being a sophisticated android designed specifically to give sexual pleasure. Chiffon is different in that the digitised consciousness of a dead woman has been downloaded into her.
She is bought by a crime-lord, Dirk, who is unaware of her previous ‘life’ or indeed that her very existence is part of a plan to rob Dirk of his fortune.
Chiffon boasts a formidable arsenal of chemical stimulants, some of which are transmitted by smell, some by her touch into another’s skin. Thus, Dirk is seduced, his trust is gained and Chiffon escapes with the contents of his safe.
Her escape plan goes awry and she ends up in a brothel-bar in the city of Brulé, somewhere on the equator of this future Earth, terraformed, weather-controlled and home to a variety of adapted humans from various parts of the Solar System.
Chiffon is rescued by Steward, a freestater, descendant of the American Indian tribes of North America, warrior and mercenary.
It’s a hi-tech multi-character narrative in which aspects of love, revenge and desire are examined from unusual and contrasting angles.
In a thread which interweaves with main plot we have Toby, an augmented human from Garden, a terraformed moon of Jupiter. Toby is a complex character, being the son of a moderate politician against whom he feel he has to rebel, for whatever reason. Since his father wishes to modify some of the more exclusionist policies of his hedonistic world, Toby becomes a fundamentalist. Matters are worsened by Toby’s involvement in the death of his father’s new wife, an important figure from a neighbouring moon, but considered by Toby to be an alien influence.
It is interesting to note that both Toby and Chiffon are seen to be victims at the start of the novel, but as we learn more, it becomes clear that things are not what they seem.
Chiffon and Toby never meet, but their actions have direct effects upon each other.
The central character, and the catalyst for the dramatic series of events in the novel is of course, Chiffon, and despite the superficially lightweight nature of what is, stylistically, a futuristic tale-noir, Reed forces us to ask questions about the nature of desire and love itself.
Chiffon is essentially a gangster’s moll. Dirk, the ‘Gang Boss’ is devastated by Chiffon’s treachery and cannot bring himself to believe that the ‘woman’ he loved had betrayed him. His hyper-masculine hit-man and second-in-command, Minus, is left to pick up the pieces and organise the search.
As a reader, one is also seduced, to a certain extent, by Chiffon’s charms, and questions are raised which can never be answered, such as how much of Steward’s feelings for Chiffon were drug-induced? Would he have done as much for her if she had never touched him? How much of the real Chiffon is from her previous life, and how much is design?
Reed has been criticised in some quarters for his rather woolly science, but for Reed that is never the issue. Like Dick, he uses Science Fiction as a way of exploring human characters and their fears and frailties. Unusually in SF, Reed has created a novel of fully-rounded characters who are products of their own histories, and although it is not his best work it stands out in 80s SF as a novel from a very individual voice.
Steward is a freestater – a descendant of Amerindian warriors – sometime bodyguard and security advisor. Chiffon is an android Flower, a courtesan created to give pleasure, and yet she is far more than that. Trying to escape her crimelord master, Dirk, she enlists Steward’s help, in the steamy equatorial city of Brulé.
In a universe where humans are as altered as their terraformed planets and moons, Robert Reed’s thrilling yet thoughtful story plays itself out, against a richly-textured backdrop which is both colourful and totally believable.'
Blurb from the 1989 Orbit edition
Miss Luscious Chiffon is a Flower; a Flower being a sophisticated android designed specifically to give sexual pleasure. Chiffon is different in that the digitised consciousness of a dead woman has been downloaded into her.
She is bought by a crime-lord, Dirk, who is unaware of her previous ‘life’ or indeed that her very existence is part of a plan to rob Dirk of his fortune.
Chiffon boasts a formidable arsenal of chemical stimulants, some of which are transmitted by smell, some by her touch into another’s skin. Thus, Dirk is seduced, his trust is gained and Chiffon escapes with the contents of his safe.
Her escape plan goes awry and she ends up in a brothel-bar in the city of Brulé, somewhere on the equator of this future Earth, terraformed, weather-controlled and home to a variety of adapted humans from various parts of the Solar System.
Chiffon is rescued by Steward, a freestater, descendant of the American Indian tribes of North America, warrior and mercenary.
It’s a hi-tech multi-character narrative in which aspects of love, revenge and desire are examined from unusual and contrasting angles.
In a thread which interweaves with main plot we have Toby, an augmented human from Garden, a terraformed moon of Jupiter. Toby is a complex character, being the son of a moderate politician against whom he feel he has to rebel, for whatever reason. Since his father wishes to modify some of the more exclusionist policies of his hedonistic world, Toby becomes a fundamentalist. Matters are worsened by Toby’s involvement in the death of his father’s new wife, an important figure from a neighbouring moon, but considered by Toby to be an alien influence.
It is interesting to note that both Toby and Chiffon are seen to be victims at the start of the novel, but as we learn more, it becomes clear that things are not what they seem.
Chiffon and Toby never meet, but their actions have direct effects upon each other.
The central character, and the catalyst for the dramatic series of events in the novel is of course, Chiffon, and despite the superficially lightweight nature of what is, stylistically, a futuristic tale-noir, Reed forces us to ask questions about the nature of desire and love itself.
Chiffon is essentially a gangster’s moll. Dirk, the ‘Gang Boss’ is devastated by Chiffon’s treachery and cannot bring himself to believe that the ‘woman’ he loved had betrayed him. His hyper-masculine hit-man and second-in-command, Minus, is left to pick up the pieces and organise the search.
As a reader, one is also seduced, to a certain extent, by Chiffon’s charms, and questions are raised which can never be answered, such as how much of Steward’s feelings for Chiffon were drug-induced? Would he have done as much for her if she had never touched him? How much of the real Chiffon is from her previous life, and how much is design?
Reed has been criticised in some quarters for his rather woolly science, but for Reed that is never the issue. Like Dick, he uses Science Fiction as a way of exploring human characters and their fears and frailties. Unusually in SF, Reed has created a novel of fully-rounded characters who are products of their own histories, and although it is not his best work it stands out in 80s SF as a novel from a very individual voice.
October 6, 2008
Ce roman raconte donc l’histoire d’une Fleur, une sorte de femme synthétique bâtie pour le plaisir, et sa tentative d’émancipation, aidée par un étrange individu.
Avant même l’histoire, qui est somme toute quelconque, on est captivé par l’univers décrit par l’auteur : cette Terre réorganisée autour de son équateur, ce système solaire, intégralement peuplé par l’humanité, et ces personnages, tous brillament décrits, donnent à ce monde une force, une vitalité, une réalité extraordinaire.
Bien sûr, on pourra objecter que nombre d’idées exposées ici peuvent se retrouver ailleurs (Schismatrice, de Bruce Sterling, me vient spontanément à l’esprit). Ca me pose d’ailleurs une questtion sur le genre du roman. Personnellement, et bien que l’auteur le situe dans un futur lointain, j’aurais envie, pour des raisons d’athmosphère, de type d’intrigue et d’évolution du monde, de le placer dans ma catégorie cyberpunk. Et vous ? Bref, au-delà de cette question, je reste totallement fasciné par certains personnages : le vénusien (appelé ici Matinal), l’Autonome (qui a à mon avis inspiré l’archétype d’indien originel dans les JdR cyberpunk comme Shadowrun) et, dans une moindre mesure, la Fleur. Ces personnages sont, et c’est tout à l’honneur de l’auteur, au service d’une intrigue qui, quoiqu’assez simple, est brillament menée. Pas un personnage n’est trop bon ou trop mauvais, et ca donne beaucoup plus de profondeur au récit.
Mais je me rends compte que je me répète un peu. Désolé pour tout ça. Un point toutefois m’a paru assez discutable : c’est le côté Melrose Place SF qui se dégage à certains moments de ces gens, qui mènent tous leurs petites vies autour de leur piscine, et se téléscopent par hasard. N’est-ce là qu’un effet de mon imagination ? Mais que ceci ne vous empêche pas de lire cette formidable histoire, qui me donne encore une fois (après avoir déja lu Béantes portes du ciel) d’explorer encore un peu plus l’univers de cet auteur. D’ailleurs, si vous avez d’autres de ses histoires à me conseiller, n’hésitez pas.
Avant même l’histoire, qui est somme toute quelconque, on est captivé par l’univers décrit par l’auteur : cette Terre réorganisée autour de son équateur, ce système solaire, intégralement peuplé par l’humanité, et ces personnages, tous brillament décrits, donnent à ce monde une force, une vitalité, une réalité extraordinaire.
Bien sûr, on pourra objecter que nombre d’idées exposées ici peuvent se retrouver ailleurs (Schismatrice, de Bruce Sterling, me vient spontanément à l’esprit). Ca me pose d’ailleurs une questtion sur le genre du roman. Personnellement, et bien que l’auteur le situe dans un futur lointain, j’aurais envie, pour des raisons d’athmosphère, de type d’intrigue et d’évolution du monde, de le placer dans ma catégorie cyberpunk. Et vous ? Bref, au-delà de cette question, je reste totallement fasciné par certains personnages : le vénusien (appelé ici Matinal), l’Autonome (qui a à mon avis inspiré l’archétype d’indien originel dans les JdR cyberpunk comme Shadowrun) et, dans une moindre mesure, la Fleur. Ces personnages sont, et c’est tout à l’honneur de l’auteur, au service d’une intrigue qui, quoiqu’assez simple, est brillament menée. Pas un personnage n’est trop bon ou trop mauvais, et ca donne beaucoup plus de profondeur au récit.
Mais je me rends compte que je me répète un peu. Désolé pour tout ça. Un point toutefois m’a paru assez discutable : c’est le côté Melrose Place SF qui se dégage à certains moments de ces gens, qui mènent tous leurs petites vies autour de leur piscine, et se téléscopent par hasard. N’est-ce là qu’un effet de mon imagination ? Mais que ceci ne vous empêche pas de lire cette formidable histoire, qui me donne encore une fois (après avoir déja lu Béantes portes du ciel) d’explorer encore un peu plus l’univers de cet auteur. D’ailleurs, si vous avez d’autres de ses histoires à me conseiller, n’hésitez pas.
October 14, 2007
Another book by Robert Reed that suffered for the plot. It's packed with great ideas about terraforming and altering the human baseline, but the plot is way too thin and spread out.
June 25, 2016
Excellent sci-fi, really entertaining
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews