Synopsis:

"Chi is probably what a Robin Williams monologue for SF fans would be like. Rapid-fire ideas from every direction that can leave you dazed and amazed."--Science Fiction Weekly

"(Besher writes with) outrageous bravura (and) imaginative leaps, in a style that nods to Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, and Robert Sheckley--science fiction's masters of surrealist slapstick."--The Washington Post

"As fast-paced, humorous and eclectic as his previous two books, Rim and Mir, (Chi) blends Oriental philosophy and Omnispace (Besher's successor to cyberspace) in a near-future Asia ... Exhilarating."--New Scientist

"Besher's pop cult following should be delighted by this psychedelic merry-go-round ... the ride he provides (in Chi) is wildly inventive, provocative and exhilarating as he struggles to make inner space, cyberspace and green space meld into one fluid world."--Publishers Weekly (* starred review)

It is the year 2038. Wing Fat, head of a Southeast Asian biotech drug cartel, is siphoning off vital chi essence from enslaved humans held on plantations in the former Golden Triangle. And bootleg chi products are flooding the world's black markets, offering global consumers everything they have always craved: super-enhanced intelligence, greater creativity, heightened sexual powers, multimedia implants and even short-term immortality. If you can afford it, you can have it. But even the 650-pound chi-godfather Wing Fat, who is having an affair with his intelligent elevator, can't have everything. It is up to Frank and Trevor Gobi, the father and son team of virtual reality investigators, to make sure of that.

 

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Author Comment:

Green? You want 'green'? How about the discovery of Nature's own organic Internet called Greenspace with servers in a certain tree in the jungles of Borneo? The poor monkeys in zoos everywhere are the captive recipients of Nature's own spam messages in their in-boxes: Congratulations, you are the lucky winner of 1,000 bananas and a free trip to Sarawak if you get yourself out of jail.

Type of Work:

Novel

Publishers:

Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Original Publish Date:

1999-01-13

Publishing Notes:

Simon & Schuster paid high five figures for this book and printed 2,000 copies after the book was thrice-orphaned by revolving door editors there.

Formats:

Hardcover, trade paper, mass market paper