re:mote voices

Title:Hormone Jungle
Author: Robert Reed
Publisher:Orbit

Luscious Chiffon is a flower. A synthetic human. An engineered sex toy. But she isn't a normal flower. Part of a plot to rip off a fabulously rich gangster - Chiffon has a human soul. However that is a greedy soul, prepared to betray the "magician" who put the plan together in the first place. However in Brule City, flowers are not particularly common and Chiffon is going to be in trouble pretty quick if she doesn't find some help.

Enter Steward, a veteran of the Freestate Wars. A bloodless war fought with pain. Steward being the best of his generation, though with a problem that has driven him from his home town of Yellowknife to Brule. Steward is willing captivated by Luscious, and willing to take the fight to crime lord Dirk and his bodyguard Minus.

Hormone Jungle is, I believe, the first novel by Robert Reed, which to a degree shows. It is a mish mash of a novel, dense with races and planets, and layers of detail. Throughout the novel Reed continually changes narrator, switching from character to character, with each trying to out think and betray everyone else. Reed uses this technique to carefully set up his climax. But along the way we never really feel anything for the characters - they are too busy being manipulative or gullible to be particularly likeable or engaging. Hormone Jungle isn't necessarily a bad novel, but I've certainly enjoyed Reed's more recent material than this one.