Chi

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
In this third novel of a loosely tied trilogy, Alexander Besher continues to make remarkable use of an unusually bizarre fusion of cyberpunk, mysticism, and crime elements. Besher deserves his growing reputation as one of the most unique voices — along with Neal Stephenson and Michael Marshall Smith — currently revitalizing the science fiction genre. Following the success of last year's MIR and its predecessor, RIM, CHI proves that Besher can capably shatter genres and take the reader to a juncture of untamed imagination, philosophy, and incorrigible humor.

It's the year 2038, and the newest offering on the drug market is chi, the very essence of life-force that can now be drawn from unwilling donors and transfused into the rich, allowing them longer lives, better sex, and enhanced intelligence and vitality. In Bangkok, the lord of this drug trade is Wing Fat, a 650-pound transsexual who discovers that another race superior to Homo sapiens already walks among us. From this new race comes a brand of chi more powerful than that stolen from victims on Wing Fat's slave farms; now Fat is adamant about getting more from the mysterious source.

British writer Paul Sykes is drawn into the convoluted machinations when he accidentally witnesses a mutated orangutan telling potential backers about this new turn of events in the chi industry. When the talking orangutan's limited amount of chi intelligence burns out and it dies, millionairess "she-devil" Deedee Delorean performs an autopsy and discovers a microchip that may allow her to corner the chimarket.However, when Paul trips upon the situation and winds up with the chip, he's off and running for his life.

With a friend, Paul is able to hack into the chip using the fauna equivalent of VR/Internet, which allows for telepathic "emails" to be sent between apes. Monkeys are genetically altered and given to the increasing number of childless couples in the world to raise as their own. Returning to the arching story line of the trilogy is Frank Gobi, protagonist of Besher's RIM, who is chasing after the origins of a virtual reality butterfly that flies across China influencing people to be less aggressive. Also reappearing is Frank's son, Trevor, the semimystical hero of MIR, who already knows a great deal more than the other participants about what is really happening. When Sykes arrives in Asia, his own "hot" chi allows him to see a mysterious black sun, and afterward he's capable of spotting the "invisibles" that walk among mankind.

CHI, like Besher's previous novels, is often a disorienting experience, where the disturbing elements of the narrative draw us into peculiar and invigorating pockets of fantasy. Besher's pseudo-hard science originality and provocative milieu whirl the reader about in a dizzying but delightful ordeal. Part of the excitement is being taken aback with the surreal situations the author effectively devises and develops. The reader is never sure what might lurk in the next unusual plot twist.

Nothing is too outlandish for Besher not to toss into this stew of bewildering and exhilarating jolts: plant-world web sites, mutant talking monkeys, psychic email, and giant VR icons seen in the real world are all components of this marvelous tale of dark science fiction with an exceptionally black-humor bend. Besher continues to establish his complex vision of what form a new global cyber reality might take. His marriage of Western technology and Eastern philosophy is not only highly thought-provoking but also extremely fun fare as well. CHI lures the reader in for an always unruly romp.

—Tom Piccirilli

Chris Barsanti

Taking cues from both the dystopian future-view of William Gibson and the tripped-out sci-fantasia of Jeff Noon, Besher polishes off his Rim trilogy with this funny and action-packed romp set in a decadent near-future world where the only thing that seems to matter is ever-more elaborate forms of entertainment. Bioengineering straight out of The Island of Dr. Moreau creates hard-to-control human-primate hybrids for childless couples, the Internet is giving way to an all-encompassing data network called Omnispace, and there appears to be a new race of chameleon-like homo sapiens afoot in the land.

Wing Fat is a Jabba-the-Hutt-like Thai crime lord trafficking in black market chi (an addictive life essence that can be extracted from humans by an advanced biotech operation) who has discovered a new form of chi that makes the old stuff look like children's Tylenol. The story careens off in a new direction every thirty pages or so, as if Besher kept discovering new novels to write and decided to pack them all into this one. Everything pulls together at the end. Sort of.

What exactly is chi? What exactly happened here? It's hard to say. But the scenes and character sketches that Besher flings about are nevertheless pungent and thrilling.

Publishers Weekly

Besher's pop cult following should be delighted by this psychedelic merry-go-round of holistic mumbo jumbo and virtual reality treats. In 2038, humanity is still searching for the next big score; if not money, then chi — the primal life force. The wealthy have access to ways to harness and technologically enhance chi. In the fleshpots of Thailand, Butterfly, a transsexual hooker, is looking to steal chi technology from unsuspecting tourists. Instead, she meets a being so extraordinary, so bursting with supernatural chi, that it may redefine the boundaries of human potential. The story, like a Rube Goldberg device, then bounces into a series of highly entertaining but seemingly random events that ingeniously move the plot forward. Wing Fat, an obscenely obese Asian merchant who markets sex, drugs and decadence, tries to sell a piece of super-size chi. Two orangutans who have humanity thrust upon them through technology see their lives torn asunder. There's a love story related to Paul Sykes, a freelance journalist, through his contact with Rodney the Philodendron, an exceptional plant with recall of the green communications network; Rodney is tapped into by an "algorithm for converting chlorophyll into an organic search engine." These incidents, and many others, lead to an event of cosmic import on an island off the Thai mainland, where the nature of reality may be changed forever by the power of chi. Though Besher's (Rim; Mir) parts may be greater than the whole, and his vision more scintillating than deep, the ride he provides is wildly inventive, provocative and exhilarating as he struggles to make inner space, cyberspace and green space meld into one fluid world. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Virtual reality invading the everyday world as a series of mass hallucinations brings together a group of individuals connected by their relationship to a charismatic and chameleonlike young man who holds the key to the transformation of the world. Set in the Pacific Rim, where Eastern philosophy and cutting-edge technology intersect in startling and sometimes violent patterns, Besher's conclusion to his Rim trilogy offers a fast-moving blend of offbeat humor and dystopian vision. A good choice for most sf collections. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Conclusion, so we're told, to Besher's cult quasi-trilogy: each book has a slightly different backdrop and a few characters in common. The Chinese energy flow, chi—here correlated with similar concepts ranging from outright mysticism to particle physics—boosts creativity, sexual prowess, and vitality. In Bangkok, the 650-lb. transsexual Wing Fat, already rich from his chi slave farms, stumbles upon a new, more powerful source of the energy. It's associated with the mysterious Dr. Chi, possibly the first of a new, superior race. Things get started here when British writer Paul Sykes intercepts a microchip that gives access to an organic interspecies VR network, and, wanting to learn more, he heads for Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, a VR butterfly appears across large parts of China: Under its influence, people grow less violent and anxious. VR gumshoe Frank Gobi (Hero of Rim, 1994) and his wife Tara suspect the involvement of elusive pheromone chemist Terry Jordan. When Sykes arrives, he finds he can see a black sun VR icon; more, he now has green eyes and can perceive people invisible to everyone else! He's befriended by Trevor, son of Frank (Mir, 1998), who has the same perceptions and green eyes. After various complications, including a prospective battle between the human/orangutan White Saga and the fearsome water buffalo Stone Age Steak, more butterfly appearances, and a mutinous talking elevator, Trevor reveals all. Plenty of jokes and many fine fragments, but baggy, shapeless, and meandering overall: for ardent admirers only.