Chimera

The concluding volume of McCarthy’s Subterrene War near-future military-powered science fiction trilogy (after Germline and Exogene) is an impressively deep and profoundly moving character study. Stan Resnick is a Special Forces operative who specializes in tracking down and eliminating escaped genetically engineered soldiers. But as he excels in his military career, his personal life is unraveling. The horrors that Resnick has witnessed—and committed—have left him numb and disconnected form reality. His wife informs him that she is pregnant with another man’s child, and eventually leaves him. Rather than face his demons, Resnick turns to the bottle and immerses himself in a top-secret mission that involves a highly illegal genetic-engineering program and the first moves toward what could be a new world war. The highly detailed, brutal depiction of futuristic warfare brilliantly complements the intimate narrative, which examines the insanity of war and those personally affected by it. Breathtaking and heartrending, this is the future of military science fiction. (Aug.)