Customer Reviews

House of Zeor

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This is the original Sime~Gen novel, the one that started it all.

It's the story of Hugh Valleroy, who's trying to be just another ordinary guy, but has a deadly secret -- his mother was a refugee from Sime Territory. Simes are mutants, energy vampires who suck the life out of a person like Hugh every month. His mother escaped that fate, but she couldn't leave behind her memory of her upbringing, in a mirror society where Simes are people and Gens (the ordinary people of Hugh's society) are fodder. She taught Hugh Simelan, the speech of the Simes, and while it's made him a superb intelligence officer, it also has subtly changed his perceptions.

And then a Sime raider kidnaps his girlfriend, an engraver who could be forced to forge Gen money and bring the entire society of free Gens to its knees. Hugh's only hope for his beloved and for his society is a daring deep-cover operation with a Sime outcast, Klyd Farris ambrov Zeor.

Klyd is a new kind of Sime known as a channel, who can safely take life force from a Gen without killing and transfer it to other Simes. However, his kind are reviled as perverts by the mainstream of Sime society, and live in isolated ghettos known as Householdings, where they associate only with others who abjure the kill.

But can Hugh trust this bizarre story of Simes who don't kill? To save his beloved and his people, he has to trust Klyd with his life.

This novel has been out of print and almost impossible to obtain for years. However, Meisha Merlin is now reprinting it as a part of their omnibus Unity Trilogy edition, along with Ambrov Keon and Zelerod's Doom. If you missed out the first time around, or if your copy is crumbling like mine is, don't miss out on the chance to get this new edition.

The Sime/Gen universe started with this book, and it's easy to see why the universe developed a large fan following.

Somewhere back in the pre-history of this Earth, something happened to humans - separating them forever into two types. The first main character, Hugh Valleroy, is a "gen". Gens are humans that appear perfectly normal, but generate an internal energy field that helps keep them alive. The second main character, Klyd (pronounced like "Clyde") Farris, is a Sime. Sime have tentacles growing out of their arms, some of which they use for manipulation of objects, but, more importantly, some of which they use to drain the energy from Gens. Simes need this energy to live, but the draining process generally kills the Gen providing the energy. This is where the similarity to a vampire story ends. But Klyd is different. He is a "Channel" - a Sime that can take energy from a Gen without killing them and transfer it to another Sime that needs it.

And it is this interaction between Simes that Channel and Simes that do not, and the Simes and Gens themselves that make these novels popular. Klyd and Hugh are sent deep into Sime territory to rescue another Gen, who also happens to be the love interest of Hugh. Hugh makes a few friends among the Simes and Gens that live in Sime territory. But that doesn't help him deal with the fact that his lover is in a camp of Simes that do not have Channels. The fact that most Gens in Gen territories do not trust Simes (because all they know is that if they are drained of energy they die), and most Simes would kill a Gen for their energy rather than use the rare Channels makes this story similar to vampire fiction, but different enough to hold your interest through many books.

The differences between this and a vampire novel could not be more apparent. There are no vampires that can transfer the blood they steal to another vampire. And The Farrises, who run a camp called The House of Zeor, are devoted to making the world a better place by making sure that Gens are safe from marauding Simes who have no channels - some of which do not want channels.

It is these differences that make this novel a fascinating start to the Sime-Gen universe. The sequel, "Unto Zeor Forever" is an even better novel, but I'd recommend that you begin with this one in order to understand some of the events in the sequel.

This book is scheduled for reprinting shortly, and it will be a welcome addition to any SF fan's library.

I can't tell you when I first read "House of Zeor", but it was back when I was thin and my hair wasn't. I found it amazing, when, last month, after not reading it for perhaps 20 years, I picked it up and was immediately transported back into a fondly (and well) remembered world. This book is one of the most complex, painfully realistic and memorable psycho-sociological thrillers I've ever read, and the foundation for an entire universe of stories, the complexity and beauty of which would definitely win awards at Arentsi (and you'll have to read it to find out what that means).

Ms. Lichtenberg, her eventual co-author for later books, Jean Lorrah, and the entire community of Sime-Gen worldbuilders have imagined characters, societies and situations that embed themselves on your brain and don't let go. I suppose it's indicative of something that I remembered many of the terms used in House of Zeor for decades -- mostly Sime-specific curse words, I confess, but they're used in context so clearly you have no problem knowing exactly what they mean.

I've been reading science fiction for nearly 50 years (yes, really). I can count the number of authors and series that have stuck with me this well easily on two hands, and I've read a LOT of SF in those years. The Sime-Gen books make you want to KNOW these people, and make you CARE about what happens to them . . . and their society, which comes painfully to the brink of collapse and ultimate calamity.

I've heard them called "vampire-analog" stories, "chick books" and more, but at base, what they are is good stories, well told, about characters you can get into.

READ THEM!

This is the book that got me started with the series. It is one of the few series that I liked well enough to buy in hardback when they were first printed. The world she invented divided between the warring Sime and Gen territories and the Households struggling to bridge the divide between the two peoples was fascinating. For anyone who enjoys vampire novels these novels of Gens who produce an energy essential to life and the Simes who must draw this energy from Gens in order to live, killing the Gen in the process will be enjoyed. The House of Zeor introduces the Household of Zeor which was the first to find a way for Simes and Gens to live together in harmony but they are pariahs to both the non-Household Simes and Gens alike and suffer frequent attacks by both.

began reading this excellent series as a young adult with "First Channel" then read this one and was hooked on the authors and the Sime-Gen universe. Great balance between action and introspection as characters struggle with survival at personal and species levels

The Sime/Gen books were one of the first series of books I ever read that weren't children's books. I stumbled across "House of Zeor" at the age of 10 (1977, a few years after it came out in 1974) and was instantly hooked. I have the whole series, and I re-read them all every few years; they are some of my favorite comfort reading. The allegory for the struggle of human rights in those books has shaped a great deal of the way I think as an adult.

A phrase coined by Jacqueline Lichtenberg. This is an example of such. Mankind is divied by accident or on purpose in mutation to a symbiotic species. Simes who Need the energy "selyn" produced by Gens to live. Gens producers of the enery "selyn" who must have the special Simes called Channels to help them survive the giving of that energy. Only the Channels can collect that selyn with out killing them. As always with mankind Love, hate, greed and fear makes a mess of it all.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg draws you in and lets you know these people intimately. All thier hopes and fears. You can't put it down and you must have more. A wonderful series that is a joy each time you read it. I can't count the times I have read the Sime Gen books and always want more.
Thank you JL

I bought this series when it first came out in paperback. I've since lost those books to the moving gods! I'm excited to see them being re-released again in digital form since digital is the only format I buy now. I'm rereading the series to get to the new ones I haven't read yet.

House of Zeor is a quasi Vampire story, written when Vampire stories were a subculture rather than a mainstream fad. The good part of this story is the writer's ability to create emotional connections between characters in a very few scenes - a buddy/sidekick one between Hugh and Klyd who are the main heros of the book, between Klyd and Denrau, his donor, Klyd and his family members, Yenava his wife and his grandfather, and so on. The relationship is closest between channel (the quasi vampire like character) and donor, closer perhaps than between man and wife, because one requires the other to live. The characters Lichtenberg creates in this book are exquisitely drawn and likable. The theme of opposites (predator and prey) working together to save an apocalyptic world are rich with promise. A reader can develop a real emotional connection to the characters and the premise, particularly as Klyd the quasi Vampire character begins to fixate on Hugh as a potential if reluctant donor, as the border policeman goes off to rescue his girlfriend, with Klyd's help, from a band of renegades. And the book has humor at times. In all respects it is well worth a read.

The downsides are this is a first novel, so expect occasional clumsiness in mechanics and phrasing in the first few pages. Don't let that turn you off as it is minor and disappears as the author reaches her stride. I think the plot and characterization and dialogue are very good. And while I could never warm up to the hysterical rescue me type female character the heroes need to save, this author can write realistic women, as Yenava, Klyd's wife is one.

If you like buddy style relationships with reluctant heros tasked to save the world, this is a good example of one.

There are many other books in the series, but this is the first. It stands on its own.

I first read "House of Zeor" in around 1978, because it was recommended in "Star Trek Lives!" Despite the horrible cover the library copy had, I read it anyway and loved it. I continued reading the series through "Unto Zeor Forever," "First Channel," and all the other wonderful titles as they came out, eagerly waiting for each one. Other reviewers have already described the basic premise of the series--this book, being the first and the "simplest," is definitely the most accessible for new readers who want to familiarize themselves with the world of Simes and Gens.

It does look like we've come full circle, though--this cover is the most appallingly bad one I've seen since my first reading in 1978 (two blobby bald guys facing each other, one with tentacles, on a puke green background--what were they *thinking*?). Please, please, don't let the cover put you off. The story is great, the characters are fascinating, and the world is fresh and original. Just buy the book, flip quickly past the ugly red and orange dude, and give yourself a treat.