The Chimera Code by Wayne Santos
I would like to thank Hanna from Rebellion for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Solaris
Published – Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook
Everything's for hire - even magic.
If you need something done, Cloke's one of the best; a mercenary with some unusual talents and an attitude to match. But when she's hired by a virtual construct to destroy the other copies of himself, and the down payment is a new magical skill, she knows this job is going to be a league harder than anything she's ever done.
An action-packed techno-thriller with a side of magical realism from a bold new voice in genre fiction.
‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ is a famous saying by the writer Arthur C Clarke. The idea being that when something passes our level of technical knowhow it becomes supernatural to our eyes. For many years science fiction and fantasy have been seen as related but must stay clear with some deep black space between them but more recently we are seeing more and more tales taking the best from both universes. Most notably in recent years The Broken Earth trilogy by N JK Jemisin and Max Gladstone’s The Craft sequence. Its not surprising as we’ve probably all grown up reading both, that we are now getting past that initial reluctance to see what happens when magic actually meets technology. For that I very grateful as reading Wayne Santos’ The Chimera Code is a brilliant action thriller taking the best of both worlds and giving me a truly unique reading experience.
In 2119 WW3 changed the world. The US has split into two (The Christian Confederated States must be watched carefully) and world power now sits in Brazil. The world is interconnected by hyper trains and is now grappling with the arrival of people capable of powerful magic. For some organisations, such people are assets and can be used for good or ill. Cloke is the leader of a Chimera unit a group that blends tech, warfare, and magic. Her team has suffered a major loss in their last engagement and her Boss has identified a new potential hacker causing trouble for Triads who may be worth a look. This brings Zee to her attention, but this young, troubled hacker has a history xie are unwilling to share. The newly commissioned team is hired to investigate a very powerful organisation discovering secrets that will change the world provide everyone doesn’t kill one another.
On the one hand we have all see tales of talented teams hired to do amazing things, but I found Santos’ tale hugely refreshing and given a well overdue twenty-first century refresh. For starters I loved the world we discover as the story progresses. By moving world power away from the US and making the rest of the world fairly easy to travel too we get a very different flavour to the world. It’s a world finding its feet after a recent conflict; some corporations are more powerful than others, but some have much better grasps of corporate responsibility than others. Now add in a new factor in the form of magic – not fully understood but has uses from making things lift into deep space saving on expensive shuttles; warfare and who knows what else. Santos throws every few chapters an interesting development and what really impressed me is the consequences of those changes on people’s lives are explored. VR can lead to addiction; cloning can lead to evil abuses and death may not be the end of your life. It beautifully slotted together and a lot of fun finding out both the history and make up of the new world we see.
To aid us into understanding the Chimera team is an absolute joy to hang around. For this adventure, the primary two characters to focus on are Cloke and Zee – mage warrior and expert hacker. Cloke is a woman in her thirties who started rebellious when first hired, still has an attitude to her employers and bosses but is now realistic that responsibility to her team and doing the right thing is important. Funny, engaging and when required to fight hugely impressive tactically and in one to one occasion. We learn her backstory that again gives an insight into what this world was and why Cloke now cares about it. In contrast Zee is much young and we see hir upbringings has led to someone unwilling to share or care too much. Zee is the young hustler keen to impress and very little respect for authority. Firstly, I really liked how we have a character who doesn’t want to use he/she pronouns – explains this to the other characters and the team all accept it very quickly. It is not the heart of the story but its great to see representation and Santos ensures the wider cast is equally diverse across the globe – making it actually feel like a future world where nationality and gender is less important.
Amusingly Cloke is constantly reminded that Zee reminds other people of their younger self, so we have an interesting mentor/pupil relationship and point of contention driving the narrative. Plus, Zee being the newbie helps us get subtle explanations of how this world works. Alongside this duo is cybernetically enhanced military expert Marcus (and I am there for more people from Liverpool in fiction) and Darma who isn’t letting his death get in the way of employment as he is now a less than respectful AI training Zee and advising Cloke. Those of you who enjoy found families will really enjoy this team and as we meet other characters connected to the group we find despite all the action some great emotional scenes of people opening up and caring for each other – but with enormous levels of backchat!
Finally, this is beautifully paced. Santos moves the story at a brisk pace with regular action set pieces moving from company infiltration, AI battles, space-set battles and one on one. Its ambitious and doesn’t put a foot wrong in moving from one part of a battle to another. The key plot raises questions of AI power, what is death and when can you betray yourself or your friends. Add in magical swords, AI battles and perhaps the next stage of magical development and it’s a huge thriving mass of story that clearly signals more adventures to come despite a very clear ending to this instalment.
This reminded me a lot of anime dramas in terms pace, set-up, and attitude but also a well thought out world, greater representation and beautifully flawed but loveable characters that I was very happy to get to know. The pace is frenetic but never outstays its welcome and it was intelligent fun which is a rarer mix than you’d think in the genre. I am now eagerly awaiting to see where the Chimera team go next. Get on board now as this looks like it will be a series to remember.
