Customer Reviews

Welcome, Chaos

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Kate Wilhelm's Welcome Chaos, originally published in 1983, is currently published only in audio version, ably narrated by Johanna Ward (who is also Kate Redding). This scientific thriller centers upon Lyle Taney, a 40-ish history prof who sets off to Oregon to do research on eagles. Before she leaves, she is visited by a sinister, demanding government official who wants her to obtain fingerprints from a suspect living near the cabin she is renting.

When Lyle meets the suspect in Oregon, she discovers Sol, a charming, learned older man, and his hunky young male assistant, Carmen. And steps off the edge of the world she has so long studied into a veritable doomsday scenario.

Wilhelm has done a masterful job at setting up her plot and filling the reader in, quite painlessly, with the complicated but necessary scientific background essential for understanding the terrible possibilities and repercussions that will follow the dissemination of Sol's work. She has populated the novel with vibrant, substantial characters and lovely descriptive images. In a genre prone to hyperbole, Wilhelm employs commendable restraint in passages in which fear, anger, and panic run high. Welcome Chaos is a thought provoking novel that prompts the reader to examine the way in which the world as we know it could become something else entirely in the blink of an eye. And there are no easy answers to the questions it proposes.

This book is long overdue for reissue, or at least an e-book release. It includes intrigues,romance, and speculation about mortality and immortality. The relationship between characters is well realized, and the description of the Oregon Coast is wonderful.

I're read this book numerous times over the years, and replaced my copy several times. Whenever I've loaned it out to friends, I never get the book back. I think the writer does an amazing job of tackling big issues and making them readable and understandable. Her description of the Oregon coast is a thing of beauty. This is one of the books I recommend most to people. It's one of the those books that makes you think, long after reading it.

I suppose that this story has a bit more than I got from it. It seemed to start and end on similar notes of eagles, the Oregon coast and storms. I was very happy to read it as I did. It was a good story of fantasy. What would happen if we could eliminate most diseases and infirmities? I was satisfied to see she did not call it immortality because it is new, who knows what the future will bring. She also does not have to deal with the memories of a thousand years of living, or more, but that situation is there as well. How many memories or how much memory can a human brain hold?
Lyle Taney (what a name!! where did it come from? I sort of associated 'Lyle' with men, but what do I know.) is a History professor who has a possibility to write another book, so she takes it. She readily finds she is in over head in spy games. She is scared, but her neighbors (the objects of the spying) help her through it. It all devolves into so much ado about nothing, and she goes on with her life.
She has been given an injection that made her sick but now she is pretty much immune from most ailments and injuries heal very fast. The Russians have discovered it and this being an older book, the fear of nuclear war is overwhelming. It develops that the good guys are trying to prevent chaos, but fail a bit. It is not as bad as nuclear war, but almost.

I suppose that this story has a bit more than I got from it. It seemed to start and end on similar notes of eagles, the Oregon coast and storms. I was very happy to read it as I did. It was a good story of fantasy. What would happen if we could eliminate most diseases and infirmities? I was satisfied to see she did not call it immortality because it is new, who knows what the future will bring. She also does not have to deal with the memories of a thousand years of living, or more, but that situation is there as well. How many memories or how much memory can a human brain hold?
Lyle Taney (what a name!! where did it come from? I sort of associated 'Lyle' with men, but what do I know.) is a History professor who has a possibility to write another book, so she takes it. She readily finds she is in over head in spy games. She is scared, but her neighbors (the objects of the spying) help her through it. It all devolves into so much ado about nothing, and she goes on with her life.
She has been given an injection that made her sick but now she is pretty much immune from most ailments and injuries heal very fast. The Russians have discovered it and this being an older book, the fear of nuclear war is overwhelming. It develops that the good guys are trying to prevent chaos, but fail a bit. It is not as bad as nuclear war, but almost.
The most interesting part was the poly-amorous relationship the good guys get into. Ms. Taney is a bit confused by it, but accepts it and enjoys being a part of it

When I'm stranded on that desert island, this is one of the ten books I'd like to take with me. It is readable and re-readable. The imagery is haunting, the characters well-rounded.