Sims [Mass Market Paperback]

F. Paul Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2004

F. Paul Wilson, a practicing physician as well as the bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series, turns his attention to the day after tomorrow and shows us how genetic engineering might change the world.

Just a few hundred genes separate humans from chimpanzees. Imagine someone altering the chimp genome, splicing in human genes to increase the size of the cranium, reduce the amount of body hair, enable speech. What sort of creature would result?

Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated. A world where dangerous or boring manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims," genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human. The chief innovator in this world is SimGen, which owns the patent on the sim genome and has begun leasing the creatures worldwide.

But SimGen is not quite what it seems. It has secrets . . . secrets beyond patents and proprietary processes . . . secrets it will go to any lengths to protect. Sims explores this brave new world as it is turned upside down and torn apart when lawyer Patrick Sullivan decides to try to unionize the sims.

Right now, as you read these words, some company somewhere in the world is toying with the chimp genome. That is not fiction, it is fact. Sims is a science thriller that will come true. One way or another.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a world in a time frame parallel to our own, the bioengineering firm SimGen, run by two brothers with a dirty secret, has created the biological equivalent of robots: simians who are genetically altered to become servile apes smarter and more capable than chimps but still subhuman. Sims work in jobs often deemed degrading by humans. They are leased out by SimGen and sent back to the company when they "go D... defective, disabled, diseased or decrepit" (rules reminiscent of US Robotics and Mechanical Men Corporation's policy on robots in Isaac Asimov's pioneering SF about robots (I, Robot, etc.). In this first novella of a proposed series, one group of sims has hired a lawyer, Patrick Sullivan, to defend their right to be a family. Sexually inactive, sims' only family comes from workmates, but as they are legally considered property their lessees can trade them at any time, just like slaves. Wilson's novella is all setup and promises. Just when the reader is fully clasped in the anticipatory grip of a good battle and the revelation of sinister deeds, the book ends. It's too early to tell how Wilson's new series will pan out, but if it fulfills the promise of its first installment, readers should be satisfied both emotionally and morally. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

SimGen is one of the most powerful corporations in the world, thanks to their monopoly on their one product, a laboratory-created species between chimpanzee and human. Created solely for slave labor, the Sims are leased like property to employers all over the world. The anti-exploitation voices have gone largely unheeded until a small group of Sims wants to unionize and the "product" finds a new ally in the form of Patrick Sullivan, an attorney specializing in labor and management issues. SimGen and its shadowy, powerful network of investors rush in to stop Sullivan, and the jousting quickly escalates into all-out war. Wilson will lose no fans with this novel and will undoubtedly gain many new ones. His latest offering is full of action and suspense that will quickly hook the reader, for elements of mystery are woven in as well. Clues and misdirection suggest a number of possibilities, but Wilson's novel is full of rewarding surprises. Gavin Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books (August 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765344637
• ISBN-13: 978-0765344632
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,155,900 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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scary peek into the future of genetics, May 27, 2004

By 

Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sims (Hardcover)

It is the near future, and there have been amazing advances in genetics research. Through gene therapy, many diseases have been cured. The SimGen Corporation has now created a transgenic species called sims, part chimpanzee and part human, that are used as slave labor. Suddenly a group of sims working as caddies at a golf club want to unionize. They hire lawyer Patrick Sullivan to represent them, and he begins to ponder whether sims are entitled to human rights. He soon meets activist Romy Cadman and a mysterious masked man, simply called Zero, who are on a crusade to destroy SimGen and stop the creation of sims. While the three of them try to protect the sims, they come close to uncovering a sinister secret in SimGen, and the company will stop at nothing to deter them.

The reader is treated to a fascinating peek into a possible future for genetics research. This hypothetical forecast is not so far-fetched, however scary and unethical it might be. Transgenic animals, in which human genetic material is inserted into animal DNA, are already being created today for the benefit of humanity. Transgenic cows have been developed, and they have human proteins in their milk, such as insulin, that can be used by the pharmaceutical industry to treat human disease. Pigs with human DNA are being developed with the goal of future use in organ transplants. This novel carries genetic experimentation forward to a next logical step: transgenic primates. Where would such creatures stand in society? Would they be considered people or animals?

"Sims" was originally written as a series of novellas, but the story holds together seamlessly as a novel. Although very different from F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novels, it is an excellent science thriller. At times the story line is a bit formulaic, a la Robin Cook, with an evil corporation twisting medical procedures for its own unspeakable ends and ruthlessly destroying those who stand in its path. But it touches on a fascinating subject, is fast-paced, and is full of edge-of-your-seat suspense. The ending has a surprising twist. I recommend this book not only as a riveting read but also as food for thought on the ethics of genetic manipulation.

Eileen Rieback

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SIMply ejoyable., May 19, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Sims (Book 1: La Causa) (Hardcover)

Sims takes place on Earth, but in an alternate time stream. On this Earth, the field of genetics is far ahead of what we have today. On this Earth gene splicing is a common occurrence. On this Earth, almost every major genetically transferred disease has been all but forgotten.

SimGen is the largest company in the world. How did they get there? They market genetically altered chimpanzees called SIMS. SimGen has found the genes that will allow these SIMS: limited speech, be larger in size, not reproduce, and yet be docile enough to work. SimGen leases their "product" to business throughout the world as cheap but efficient labor.

Not being happy with their fate, a group of SIMS has enlisted the aid of a lawyer named Patrick Sullivan to help them form a union. Could this be the start of the downfall of the giant corporation known as SimGen?

In Wilson's forward, he states that this is the first novella in what will probably comprise 5 or more books. Though not groundbreaking, this first novella sets the groundwork for what looks to be a solid series.

Currently, this book is only available as a signed limited edition through Cemetery Dance Publications. The print run was only 750 copies. So, if you can find one, snatch it up. There aren't many to go around. Future installments will likewise be the same. Hopefully in the future, there will be a mass-market paperback version so that a larger number of people could enjoy this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and current, August 27, 2003

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sims (Hardcover)

Patrick Sullivan is a lawyer, not an activist. If the country club managers hadn't been so rude and so contemptuous, he would have walked away from the sims seeking a union. In a moment of pique, however, he took on the clients and the case--and set himself up for a world of trouble. SimGen has become one of the largest corporations in America largely on the strength of one 'product.' A genetically altered species of chimpanzee, with human genes spliced in--the sim. Thanks to hardworking sims (engineered to work without complaining, without pay, and without weekends and holidays), the U.S. is able to compete with low-wage countries again, able to spare its 'humans' from the worst jobs, and able to enjoy an economic boom. When Patrick files his lawsuit, SimGen turns its legal and extra-legal weapons directly on him--because sims are property, and property cannot unionize, cannot petition the government, and certainly cannot be considered 'people' in any sense--not if SimGen is to stay in business. Worse, SimGen has powerful backers--backers that frighten even the corporation's founders. They don't like Patrick much either. Fortunately, Patrick finds a few allies--in an organization that is trying to eliminate the entire sim industry. But allies like that can get him killed too.

Author F. Paul Wilson has created a powerful and exciting story out of current headlines. In scientific circles, there is currently a debate about whether chimpanzees should be reclassified as part of genus homo--as part of the human family. They are, in fact, more closely related to humans than they are to gorillas. DNA research is inserting genes from one species into another--to produce insect resistant crops and specialty animals for medical research. Science could allow development of something like the sims, and allow it relatively soon. Wilson's fears about the government backing down to financial pressures and of secret government funding of projects is also based on current trends--the C.I.A. has even created a venture capital fund to promote research into areas of its interest. Wilson didn't even get into the heart of the problems of government agencies who have their own funding and no need to go to Congress for funding and authorization.

Wilson's strong writing propells the story forward. Although many of the plot twists are predictable, they are, nevertheless, enjoyable and satisfying. SIMS is hard to put down. I read it in a single sitting.