Fearful Symmetries: The Return of Nohar Rajasthan | |||||
S. Andrew Swann | |||||
DAW Books, 280 pages | |||||
A review by Jeri Wright
Nohar Rajasthan is a moreau, one of the many descendants of animals engineered in the labs to
fight human wars who now live as second-class citizens in human society. Nohar is from tiger stock,
only one generation from the labs, and at 40 he is old for one of his kind.
He was once rather well known -- the only moreau private detective in Los Angeles. But he has
been retired for a long time now, and even when he was on the job, he had a rule against taking
cases involving humans. So when a pink (human) lawyer named Charles Royd turns up with the case
of a missing crossbreed, Nohar rather quickly shows him the door and puts the matter out of his mind.
Until he is attacked in the middle of the night by a team of very professional-seeming men intent
upon killing him. Barely escaping with his life gives Nohar a new outlook on the situation; it is
definitely time to find out what is going on. When he learns the details of the case he had refused
to hear from Royd, he realizes that the missing moreau, a feline named Manuel, is connected with Nohar's own past.
Finding him becomes the most important job of Nohar's life.
This works very well as a hard-boiled detective story. The "noir" feel is there, the dark vision
of a world where injustice and intolerance reign, but do not go unchallenged. We have the loner with
a mysterious past, and the fight for justice against impossible odds. Nohar's personal quest is one
with high stakes for his society as well, since Manuel has something that a lot of dangerous people are
willing to stop at nothing to recover.
The science fiction side of it, the look at the future with the addition of the moreaus, is also
intriguing. While the adventure/detective story takes the lead, the backdrop and details
about this future world kept me interested. Though this is the fourth novel in the series and the
second with this character as the lead, it can easily be read independently of the others. I just
happen to be a "can't read just one" type reader myself... so I will hope there are even more adventures to come.
Jeri is a voracious reader who believes that paradise could well be a quiet afternoon, unlimited chocolate, and a novel to lose herself in. She reads and reviews all types of fiction, and enjoys sharing her life long passion for books with like-minded readers. |
If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide