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Cimmerian City

Rae Lindley

Published 2007        200 pages

Summary (from the back cover)

Greed can turn a good man’s heart to stone. This is especially true in the age of commerce and large corporations. No new pill can be taken without a laundry list of side effects that the patient may have to endure. But what if the side effects are more dangerous than the pills are helpful? What if the side effect causes the patient to be immune from standard dangers, such as firearms, the climate, etc., but causes them to change into otherworldly beings?

It is seen through the eyes of a young woman named Raven Blackheart.  It is a future where corporations rule the world and political parties have been dismissed. An Earth that is recovering from a global war that has divided two races: Humans and Dracins, quick, tough skinned creatures that are children of the side effects from 20th century pharmaceuticals.

Raven awakens in this world as a product of both races and nurtured by the vice president of the main corporation in the world as a symbol of the union of races. With her help, Vice President Tyler Deamond’s corporation can take both beings off Earth, which is quickly becoming a waste planet, and to a new terraformed planet. But, as Raven learns, nothing is as it seems, especially concerning humans.

The Review

Cimmerian City is author Rae Lindley’s first full length novel and with plans for more books set in the Cimmerian City world, it certainly won’t be her last.  Cimmerian City is a multi-faceted futuristic science fiction novel with many layers and multiple plotlines.

It is set in a 2010 that is a nightmarish echo of our own world – crime ridden, corrupt and polluted.  Big corporations now have more power than governments, in fact governments don’t seem to exist anymore.  Even the police report to the Tech Corporation.  The Tech Corporation is in charge of building the space ship that will relocate some of the population to a new planet and they have the power to say who will get to travel and who will be left behind.  As the Tech Corporation is run by humans you can make a good guess now as to who they plan to let on the spaceship.

It is a novel that dwells on the issues of racism and prejudice, sadly still all too prevalent in this futuristic world.  The Dracins hate Humans and the Humans hate the Dracins.  Raven is a hybrid of the two species and may be the only being on the planet with the ability to bridge the gulf between the two races.

Unfortunately she has been manipulated into being a killing tool for the Corporation but it soon becomes apparent that she has her own plans and agenda.

The Dracins in Cimmerian City are a little disappointing as vampires.  We (the readers) understand that they are the results of experiments on humans by a pharmaceutical company but their vampirism only extends to a need for blood - which they get through regular injections rather than going on killing rampages and biting humans to get it.  They can go out in daylight, are not afraid of religious objects and are not undead - or any of the other things that you would expect of vampires.  In fact they really don’t seem like vampires at all.

Cimmerian City is a fast paced novel that will be popular with science fiction and conspiracy theorist fans but if you are looking solely for a vampire read this novel is probably not it. 

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