Chimera

Let's see here, Chimera gives us:

• * A first-person account of super-hero life from an under-represented type of Super-Hero -- Check!


• * Personal conflicts, Personal demons, general turmoil -- moreso than most X-Men, even -- heroes that carry emotional scars in addition to those earned in battleCheck!


• * Impending Government Persecution of Super-Heroes -- Check!


• * A sex scene that goes on far too long for comfort -- but is thankfully easily skippableCheck!

Yup. Chimera is a MetaWars book. It carries all the marks.

Renee Duval, aka Flex, is the focus this time around. She and a notorious ex-Bane have been dispatched to investigate a series of thefts that have to be being carried out by one or more teen Metas. With the threat of officially sanctioned internment of Metas hovering over them, the last thing the Rangers need is some punk kids bringing down the heat on them and any other law-abiding Meta. So Renee and Chimera have their work cut out for them – particularly considering that Renee's doing her best to hang on to her anti-Bane sentiment, far after the rest of her team is softening. What they discover is unsettling for them, and doesn't exactly fill the reader with a sense of joy, either.

One the one hand, I get Meding's motive for varying P.O.V. characters in each book – and in many ways, I prefer this to the books that jump P.O.V. every chapter or so. But it's also a weakness – for example – Trance was our entry into this world, we saw it all through her eyes. But we don't get a whole lot of Trance any more – and what we do is just in brief bursts of conversation, and we don't get the same impression of, knowledge of, experience of her. Still, Flex is a strong, yet flawed character, and it was nice to get in her head.

Plenty of action, some solid character growth, good plot advancement – Chimera is another good installment in a very satisfactory series. For a dystopian future, there's something welcoming about this world, and I enjoy any time I get to spend in it. This book took me a freakishly long time to finish. That's not a reflection on the character(s), the story, or the author – I was apparently busier and more tired than I realized until I saw just how long I'd spent reading the book (I'm not so unaware to not notice it was taking me awhile, just didn't see how long I was taking). It was a good read, an engaging read.