hase Maxwell is a hardboiled private investigator with a soft heart and a penchant for gambling. He lives in a grim future Los Angeles where indentured servitude and slavery have returned, spurred by the creation of artificial intelligences (AIs) and genetically engineered "chimeras" that are part human and part animal. A gambling debt forces Chase to accept as a client Zoe Domingo, a jaguar woman who was bought and freed by an abolitionist scientist. The scientist was subsequently murdered, and Zoe has been accused of the crime, despite the fact that the murder was committed by an AI policeman. The only clue is an earring given to Zoe that seems to have the ability to reprogram AIs.
Chase and Zoe cooperate with the local authorities, but the policewoman assigned to protect them frames Chase and Zoe for the murder of another abolitionist scientist. They go into hiding at the home of an old friend from Chase's days in the military special forces.
From his service days, Chase retains a surgically implanted "infinite pocket," a piece of folded space in which he can hide guns and other valuables. The pocket has other useful abilities, such as automatic cryogenic suspension of the owner if he or she is killed. This comes in handy when some of Chase's old gambling buddies try to nab him but instead shoot him.
When Chase recovers, he finds that Zoe has saved his life at the cost of her own freedom. She has been convicted and sentenced to 30 years in a secret labor camp. Realizing that he cares more for the jaguar woman than he ever has for a human woman, he hatches a desperate plan to free Zoe and clear her of wrongdoing.
Cynical SF noir
Shetterly succeeds at translating the characters, plots and themes--and even the clichés--of Chandler- and Hammett-style detective novels into a gritty future world. The foreigners and minorities who were treated as second-class citizens in the 1920s provide the model for the chimeras and AIs who are treated as badly or worse in the future. Both Chase and Zoe are well developed, likable characters, and their compatriots, both friend and foe, are all colorful and entertaining. Shetterly even throws a rich, inscrutable, highly intelligent dolphin into his noir future.
The technological ideas in Chimera are also imaginative and interesting, from Chase's infinite pocket and the mysterious earring to the robot AIs and the chimeras themselves.
Embedded in this compelling tale, however, is a bit too much cynicism regarding humanity. The average American in Shetterly's novel--and most of the chimeras, as well--is relentlessly, mindlessly racist, and hates any person or group that looks different. It is this, more than any cyberpunk-future sleaziness, that makes Shetterly's future seem too grim and takes some of the fun out of the tale of Chase and Zoe. With the evil of populist racism so pervasive, there is no room for a memorable villain in the story.
But that's a minor quibble. Chimera is a fast-paced action novel with likable protagonists in a colorful future world, and overall a pleasurable read.
