The Portero Method (Sims) [Hardcover]

F. Paul Wilson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The story of a lawyer, Patrick Sullivan, pulled into a fight for a group of enslaved, bioengineered "sims" against their creators continues with mixed results. Here is a perfect second chapter that deepens the resolve of the good guys, shows off the dirty side of the bad guys and for a good twist also shows the villains' hatred of that aspect of their character. Novellas typically don't contain the depth of novels, but this one does. On its own, however, this second installment is less compelling than the first, regardless of the strength of the writing, because it functions mainly to support the foundation of the tale rather than further it. Having previously set up the characters and story line, the author wastes no words on recap. This makes it difficult for the new reader to become absorbed in the attempts on Patrick's life and his qualms about continuing with his court case after the company that created the sims strong-arms his human clients into abandoning him. For all the well-drawn action and hints at the sinister nature of the sims' origin, no new mysteries are discovered or existing ones solved. Wilson leaves a lot of plot threads hanging, with no hint as to what will happen in the third novella. This series will likely be worth the wait in the end, but readers will want to have copies of the previous volume at hand to remind them of why they were first drawn to the story.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 115 pages
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587670232
• ISBN-13: 978-1587670237
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,030,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born toward the end of the Jurassic Period and raised in New Jersey where I misspent my youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. I sold my first story in the Cretaceous Period and have been writing ever since. (Even that dinosaur-killer asteroid couldn't stop me.)

I've written in just about every genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror, a children's Christmas book (with a monster, of course), medical thrillers, political thrillers, even a religious thriller (long before that DaVinci thing). So far I've got about 33 books and 100 or so short stories under my name in 24 languages.

THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, and BY THE SWORD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. My novelette "Aftershock" received the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others (God knows why). I received the prestigious Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. I'm listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America. (That plus $3 will buy you a girly coffee at Starbuck's.)

My novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) from Paramount in 1983. My original teleplay "Glim-Glim" first aired on Monsters. An adaptation of my short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997.

And then there's the epic saga of the Repairman Jack film. After 14 years in development hell with half a dozen writers and at least a dozen scripts, THE TOMB is finally moving toward production as "Repairman Jack" from Beacon Films and Touchstone. The plan is to make Jack a franchise character. (Gotta tell you: all the years of this has worn me out.)

I've done a few collaborations too. One with Steve Spruill on NIGHTKILL, and a bunch with Matthew J. Costello. Matt and I did world design, characters, and story arcs for Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed, a daily newscast set 150 years in the future. An FTL NewsFeed was the first program broadcast by the new channel when it launched in September 1992. We took over scripting the Newsfeeds (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year) in 1994 and continued until its cancellation in December 1996.

We did script and design for MATHQUEST WITH ALADDIN (Disney Interactive - 1997) with voices by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, and the same for The Interactive DARK HALF for Orion Pictures, based on the Stephen King novel, but this project was orphaned when MGM bought Orion. (It's officially vaporware now.) We even wrote a stageplay, "Syzygy," which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in March, 2000.

I'm tired of talking about myself, so I'll close by saying that I live and work at the Jersey Shore where I'm usually pounding away on a new Repairman Jack novel and haunting eBay for strange clocks and Daddy Warbucks memorabilia. (No, we don't have a cat.)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars SIMS - Book Two, May 4, 2002

By 

Eric B. Parker "utsugi6string" (Lakeland, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Portero Method (Sims) (Hardcover)

Patrick Sullivan has gotten himself into something that's much bigger than what he realized. SimGen, understanding the repercussions of what a publicized legal battle with a group of SIMs may do to the company, has raised the ante on the lawyer Sullivan. SimGen sets forth a course of events that will attack both his personal and professional lives. Will Patrick Sullivan's resolve and character be enough when things start to fall apart, badly?

Romy Cadman is the wildcard. She's being backed by an unknown organization with deep resources that is intent on stopping SimGen from producing more "product". Romy finds Patrick Sullivan and show's him what the ugly side of life looks like for these SIMs. Patrick has some soul searching to do. Was it really about the SIMs or just the fame and possible fortune that would come from taking such a high profile case?

This is the second novella in what F. Paul Wilson said in his first book, would probably be 5 or more installments. This is a fine follow up to La Causa, that opens up the plot even more and starts new thread lines. Unfortunately, for any reader who might just run across this book, it is not a self-contained book. It just picks up where La Causa left off. There is no recap of events and a new reader would be pretty lost. Judging by the first two books, this series could be one large book that was just chopped up into bite-sized pieces, to make a series of chapbooks. I would suggest to anyone to try and buy, borrow, beg, or steal La Causa to enjoy the full impact of this great story.

As with La Causa, The Portero Method is only available as a signed limited edition through Cemetery Dance Publications. The print run was only 750 copies. There is no indication that all future installments will be any different. So, grab one while you can.