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Sims Paperback – September 1, 2004

by F. Paul Wilson (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 52 ratings
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F. Paul Wilson, a practicing physician as well as the bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series, turns his attention to the day after tomorrow and shows us how genetic engineering might change the world.

Just a few hundred genes separate humans from chimpanzees. Imagine someone altering the chimp genome, splicing in human genes to increase the size of the cranium, reduce the amount of body hair, enable speech. What sort of creature would result?

Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated. A world where dangerous or boring manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims," genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human. The chief innovator in this world is SimGen, which owns the patent on the sim genome and has begun leasing the creatures worldwide.

But SimGen is not quite what it seems. It has secrets . . . secrets beyond patents and proprietary processes . . . secrets it will go to any lengths to protect. Sims explores this brave new world as it is turned upside down and torn apart when lawyer Patrick Sullivan decides to try to unionize the sims.

Right now, as you read these words, some company somewhere in the world is toying with the chimp genome. That is not fiction, it is fact. Sims is a science thriller that will come true. One way or another.
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  1. Print length
    512 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Forge Books
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 2004
  5. Dimensions
    4.25 x 0.75 x 6.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0765344637
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0765344632
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

F. Paul Wilson, a New York Times bestselling author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything in between, is a practicing physician who resides in Wall, New Jersey.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I


WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY

SEPTEMBER 20


A good walk spoiled, Patrick Sullivan thought as he trudged toward the rough where his slicing golf ball had disappeared. Somebody had got that right.
Patrick didn't actually hate golf, but he suffered from a condition he'd come to call GADD--Golf Attention Deficit Disorder. Nine holes and he'd had it. Maybe that was because during his first nine holes he racked up more strokes than most golfers did in eighteen. But today he was playing with Ben Armstrong, CFO of the Jarman department store chain and a valued client, who, although even less skillful than Patrick on the links, seemed immune to GADD.
Maybe it was the clothes. Armstrong, a florid-faced fellow in his sixties, sporting a neat goatee the same steel-gray shade as his hair, had decked himself out in a blue-and-raspberry-striped shirt, raspberry pants, and white golf shoes. Patrick wasn't into sherbet shades; he wore a white shirt, navy slacks, and tan shoes.
Golf or not, he was having a good walk on a bright September day among the luxuriously verdant rolling hills of upper Westchester where the Beacon Ridge club nestled its links. The air was redolent of fresh-mown grass and money.
Christ, he wanted into this place. Not so much for the golf, but because golf was such a great way to do business.
Like today. Armstrong, a club member, had asked Patrick out for a twosome. Wanted to get caught up on the upcoming negotiations with the salesclerk union. Patrick's specialty was labor law, and though he worked both sides, lately he'd found himself billing more and more hours to the management end.
Beacon Ridge was packed with heavies like Armstrong. A goldmine of potential clients and billable hours. Patrick's firm loved billable hours--little else mattered at Payes & Hecht--and if he could tap into this mother lode…
A sudden screech from ahead and to his left drew his attention. His caddie was pointing at the ground. "Here, sir, here! I find! Here!"
"Good eye, Nabb," Patrick said as he walked over.
"Yessir," Nabb said, his head bobbing as he grinned broadly at the praise. "Good eye, good eye."
Typical of the Beacon Ridge caddies, Nabb was an average size sim, about five-three, maybe 130 pounds; he sported a little more facial hair than most sims. Armstrong's caddie, Deek, was a bit different--beefier, and seemed taller, although that might be due to better posture. They looked like hominids yanked from the Stone Age and wrestled into the Beacon Ridge caddie uniform of lime green shirt and white pants, but they moved with a certain grace despite their slightly bowed legs.
Beacon Ridge had introduced sim caddies a couple of years ago, the first golf club in the country to do so. Caused quite a stir at the time, but the club members seemed to enjoy the status of being pioneers in the transgenic revolution. Other clubs soon followed suit, but Beacon Ridge remained famous for being the first. By now sims were practically part of the scenery around the links.
"Come on, movie star!" Armstrong called from the green. "You can do it!"
Movie star…on their first meeting he'd said Patrick reminded him of Axel Sommers, the latest digital heartthrob. Patrick figured Armstrong needed glasses. Sure, they both had blue eyes and slightly wavy blond hair, but Sommers looked just a little too pretty for comfort.
Patrick waved and turned to Nabb. "Let me have the five wood."
The sim's dark brown eyes shifted between the ball nestled in the rough against a broad-leafed weed, and the green a hundred yards away atop a slope. "Seven better, sir."
"That five's especially made for rough"--Christ knows I'm in it enough--"and this is as rough as it gets."
Nabb pulled out the seven and handed it to him. "Five too far, sir."
"What makes you think you know my game?" Patrick said, trying to keep his annoyance out of his tone. He'd take golf advice from just about anyone, even a sim, but he knew his own limitations. "This is the first time you've caddied for me."
Nabb watch Mist Sulliman before."
"Really?" He didn't get to play here all that often. How could this creature know his game?
The sim thrust the iron forward. "Seven."
Patrick snatched the club. "Okay. We'll do it your way. But if--I should say, when--it falls short and rolls back down that hill, I'm gonna have your hide."
Nabb said nothing, simply stepped back to give Patrick room.
Patrick took two practice swings, stepped up to the ball, and whacked it. The ball sailed high, sailed straight, and plopped out of sight somewhere atop the slope.
Armstrong started clapping. "Nice shot! Less than a dozen feet from the |hole!"
Patrick turned to Nabb and had to laugh when he saw the huge grin on the sim's apelike face. "Don't say you told me so!"
"Nev say, sir. Just want Mist Sulliman win."
Wants the nonmember to win? Odd. But who could figure what went on in an animal's head.
Patrick one-putted and birdied the hole--an event rare enough to warrant a victory jig, but he resisted. Armstrong's caddie seemed as pleased as Nabb.
As they strolled toward the next tee, Patrick noticed swelling and bruising around Deek's right eye.
"What happened to you?"
"Bump door, sir."
"Deek ver clums," Nabb said. "Always bump self. Not watch where go."
"Quit jawing with the help, Patty," Armstrong said. He laughed. "Next thing you know you'll be trying to unionize them."
Nabb dropped Patrick's golf bag.
"Sorry, sir," he said as he knelt to gather up the clubs. "Sometime Nabb too ver clums."

Copyright © 2003 by F. Paul Wilson

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Forge Books (September 1, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765344637
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765344632
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.75 x 6.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 52 ratings

About the author

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F. Paul Wilson

F. Paul Wilson

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I was born toward the end of the Jurassic Period and raised in New Jersey where I misspent my youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. I sold my first story in the Cretaceous Period and have been writing ever since. (Even that dinosaur-killer asteroid couldn't stop me.)

I've written in just about every genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror, young adult, a children's Christmas book (with a monster, of course), medical thrillers, political thrillers, even a religious thriller (long before that DaVinci thing). So far I've got about 55 books and 100 or so short stories under my name in 24 languages.

I guess I'm best known for the Repairman Jack series which ran 23 novels. Jack is out to pasture now, but I may bring him back if the right story comes along.

THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, BY THE SWORD, and NIGHTWORLD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. My novelette "Aftershock" received the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others (God knows why). I received the prestigious Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. I'm listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America. (That plus $3 will buy you a coffee at Starbuck's.)

My novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) from Paramount in 1983. My original teleplay "Glim-Glim" first aired on Monsters. An adaptation of my short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997.

And then there's the epic saga of the Repairman Jack film. After 20 years in development hell with half a dozen writers and at least a dozen scripts, Beacon Films has decided that "Repairman Jack" might be better suited for TV than theatrical films. (We'll see how that works out.)

I've done a few collaborations too: with Steve Spruill on NIGHTKILL, A NECESSARY END with Sarah Pinborough, THE PROTEUS CURE with Tracy Carbone, and the Nocturnia series with Thomas Moneleone. Back in the 1990s, Matthew J. Costello and I did world design, characters, and story arcs for Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed, a daily newscast set 150 years in the future. An FTL NewsFeed was the first program broadcast by the new channel when it launched in September 1992. We took over scripting the Newsfeeds (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year) in 1994 and continued until its cancellation in December 1996.

We did script and design for MATHQUEST WITH ALADDIN (Disney Interactive - 1997) with voices by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, and the same for The Interactive DARK HALF for Orion Pictures, based on the Stephen King novel, but this project was orphaned when MGM bought Orion. (It's officially vaporware now.) We did two novels together (MIRAGE and DNA WARS) and even wrote a stageplay, "Syzygy," which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in March, 2000.

I'm tired of talking about myself, so I'll close by saying that I live and work at the Jersey Shore where I'm usually pounding away on a new novel and haunting eBay for strange clocks and Daddy Warbucks memorabilia. (No, we don't have a cat.)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
52 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Chad Cloman
5.0 out of 5 stars An Unpredictable Thriller
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2016
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After the first hundred pages, I was pretty sure this was going to be a long speculative fiction story about the legal standing of genetically engineered hominids. Well, I was wrong. The story started taking some twists, and it became quite the thriller. I thoroughly enjoyed the remaining 300 pages.

The author is a physician, so he knows what he's talking about in regards to the genetic and biological issues. He also has a good way of thinking outside the box, as shown in his Repairman Jack novels.

Recommended.
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BGreene
5.0 out of 5 stars Very thought-provoking read
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2021
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Very thought-provoking read
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Gramcracker
4.0 out of 5 stars Wife of an F. Paul Wilson Fan...
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2011
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My husband's brother and sister got him hooked on F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack Series, so for his birthday I purchased several F. Paul Wison books that he hasn't read, two of them being the last two published of the Repairman Jack Series. There is one yet to be published, #15, and then the series will come to an end. My husband is a great fan of F. Paul Wilson and he was thrilled to receive these books that he's not yet read. I cannot give a true rating since I've not read them, but I'll chance it by giving a 4 star rating because I'm sure he'll enjoy these as he did the previous ones. In fact, as I am typing this, he's reading one of the books right now.
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Cruz
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book when I was younger. Always wanted to reread it.
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2017
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Great questions. If more animal than human are the beings made a product? Would it be equal to slave labor?
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Mollymae
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2013
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Entertaining, interesting, well written. I enjoyed it very much and do like many things that I have read from F. Paul Wilson. Very imaginative.
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William Bentrim
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2017
SIMS by F. Paul Wilson

This book is 13 years old and yet is still cutting edge. Genetic manipulation and it's results are the focus of the book. The development of an evolved chimpanzee and it's enslavement is the key plot line.

One of the more interesting factors about the book was the syndicated article in the Naples Daily News last week dealing with the court fight to get some chimps declared human. If you are reading this review on Amazon, there will be no link to the Associated Press article as Amazon review policy doesn't allow links. My author page here at Amazon has a link to my website that shows the article under News.

The author deals with bi-polar disorders and refers peripherally to the dangers of cosmetic genetic modification.

Dispensing with the educational and philosophical aspects of the book, it was an exciting and captivating story that challenges stereo-types and prejudice. Sadly that is probably more important in today's political climate than it was 13 years ago.

I recommend the book.
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Fred Rayworth
4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Decent Thriller
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2015
This was one of those offshoot series F. Paul Wilson books that I bought a few years ago that wasn’t Repairman Jack, yet because I love his writing, I wanted to sample his other stuff. I picked it up a few years ago, but never reviewed it until now (2015).

The story is quite imaginative and creepy, in its own way, about mixing humans and chimps and what could happen inbetween. Of course, evil forces come into play and mayhem ensues. As usual, I won’t go into plot details as I’m sure others have and that’s beating a dead horse (I don’t care if it’s a cliché, sue me).

What I like is the solid third-person, fast moving story line, interesting characters and plot twists. Wilson just has a great way of telling a story. Whether he goes off the deep end with any plot elements, I have a pretty high tolerance for suspending my disbelief, yet nothing in this story made me have to stretch that far. Then again, I’m no biological scientist and at least, he is or was an M.D. so he has a huge jump on me with that kind of expertise.

The fact is that I had a great time and closed the book with a smile on my face. Can’t ask for better than that. It wasn’t Repairman Jack, but it was still pretty decent. Recommended.
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Barry Lee Dejasu
5.0 out of 5 stars Get in touch with your inner chimp!
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2003
Don't worry, I'll just cut to the chase and not bore you with "in 2000 I read my first book from this author, blah-blah..." This book is simply fantastic. Read on.
Maybe you've read the synopsis somewhere, maybe online, maybe on the inside cover of the book; for those who came in late...here it is again: It is sometime in the future (F. Paul Wilson doesn't even waste time saying "in the not-too-distant-future" or "in the year 20--", so don't worry), and mankind has tampered with nature to suit his needs yet again.
There are proto-human creatures called sims that have been created for the work force. Two brothers, Mercer and Ellis Sinclair, after raising tons of money from creating genetically altered domestic cats (so they don't give off dander), have created--and are the owners of--the sims. Sims mostly appear human, but have flatter noses, larger ears, and other easily distinguishable features. They were created from chimpanzees that had their DNA altered so as to become taller, stronger, and more capable of intelligence--yet not enough to become another species of human; this way, the Sinclairs can officially sell the sims to the work force as if they were a PRODUCT, as opposed to an ORGANISM. And it shows--every sim has a barcode tattooed on the back of their neck. Does this seem at all cruel to you? Well, it certainly does to a few people in here, especially to one of the main characters, Patrick Sullivan, a lawyer who runs into an aging sim in the men's room at a golf course...and makes the decision that changes his life forever...but to give away much more than this would be to spoil the wonders of this gem of a book.
A combination of work, reading other books, and going to a writer's convention where I met F. Paul Wilson himself, made for a bumpy ride reading the book--it took me almost two MONTHS to finish it--so my opinion may be a little biased; however, I think it is safe to say that this is a quick read, and I can say without hesitation that it certainly is a great one. Superb characters, good description (without overdoing it, though!), plenty of humor, some scares, some tears, so many good things...just like everything that F. Paul Wilson has written.
Now order a copy and read, and in Wilson's words that he inscribed in the front cover of my own copy, "Get in touch with your inner chimp!"
2 people found this helpful
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Shuh
5.0 out of 5 stars Different near future science fiction
Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2016
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Science fiction story with some length and depth. The topic is relevant and will cause you to think a bit about the issues within a good story. No complaints the story kept my interest start to finish.
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猫三朗
5.0 out of 5 stars 圧倒的な面白さです
Reviewed in Japan on June 27, 2010
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Paul Wilsonの作品はほとんど読んでいますが、ハズレがありません。
この本も、人間、科学の進歩、生きること等について深く考えさせられつつ、娯楽小説としてもページを繰る手が止まりません。
前の方も書いていらっしゃいますが、この本がどうして翻訳されないのか不思議です。
最近のキング、クーンツの作品の、遥かに上を行く本です。
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manbearpig
2.0 out of 5 stars Worst FPW ever...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2005
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This is a poor book by Wilson's high standards. Firstly, he sets it in the near future in a world almost without difference form our own...everything is the same, except that genetics have evlolved to the point were chimp-human hybrids exist everywhere as a form of slave labour. Anyway, a hot-shot young lawyer decides to help a shadowy underworld organization organize a union for these SIMS, and the book tells their story...beyond the genetically modified mandrill playing Mortal Kombat 22 though, its a rather boring story. It also features an amazingly predictable "shock" ending...simply not up to FPW's usual standard, although i guess everyone is allowed an off day.
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