Sime~Gen: The Unity Trilogy is a book that landed in my lap -- nearly literally! I swear, I showed up one night for the writers' group I'm in and my friend Alan was there with a white box. "Hey, remember how I mentioned we could maybe use you as a proofreader?" he asked, before handing over the box.

Inside were three manuscripts, since it was a trilogy being republished as an omnibus by Meisha Merlin. Quickly Alan explained the plot to me, something about a species split in two, half with tentacles, half without but producing some kind of substance the tentacled ones needed to life. Not much to go on, but Alan was enthusiastic and I was excited to have a proofing project that was paid (good deal, getting paid by the page!) so I took them home and got to work.

Sime~Gen was totally addictive! I didn't read it the day Alan gave it to me, but a couple of weeks later it was a Friday night and I saw the box and said "Okay, let me see what this is about."

As soon as I started going through the first manuscript, I was really intrigued. There was a certain tension between the characters, plus a current of sort of odd sensuality and urgency, that I really enjoyed. I found myself skimming through most of the first book, House of Zeor, that night and I mean all night. That whole weekend ended up nothing but a haze of Sime~Gen, as I skimmed through Ambrov Keon and then Zelerod's Doom, skipping big parts but then finding parts I read over and over. (Of course after that I had to spend a couple weeks actually reading through beginning to end doing my proofing.)

So what is Sime~Gen about? Well, contrary to what I had thought when Alan first explained it to me, we're not talking about some aliens on another planet, but actually humans on our own planet. Set apparently some centuries in the future, Sime~Gen has the human race divided (through either evolution or genetic manipulation, nobody knows) into two groups: Simes and Gens. Both groups basically look the same, but there is one big difference which dominates all goings-on between them: Simes have tentacles on their arms and need selyn to survive, while Gens don't have tentacles and produce selyn. Selyn isn't any type of bodily fluid but basically an invisible life force almost like chi, which builds up naturally in Gens but whose absence in Simes will kill them if they go more than a month.

Ever since the mutation divided the species, Simes and Gens have understandably been at war. In Sime-controlled territories, Gens are raised in pens like animals and bought and sold like they're food -- stripped of their selyn and tossed away. In Gen-dominated territories, by contrast, there is a saying that "The only good Sime is a dead Sime." And what makes it really scary is that Gens can have Sime children and vice versa -- nobody knows until they hit puberty. If Gens have Sime children, they kill them, and when Simes have them, they can of course kill them or sell them to Gen dealers.

This is the basic set up of the trilogy and the plot, as it developers, involves efforts on part of Simes and Gens to overcome all the prejudice and enmity and achieve unity. After all, if Simes kill all the Gens, they'll die, and it's already a given than Gens can't kill all the Simes.

None of this is explained in boring history lessons, however, but laid out in the stories of individuals. In House of Zeor the story centers of a Gen named Hugh Valleroy, who goes on a dangerous, secret assignment into Sime territory in order to rescue an important Gen official who also happens to be his girlfriend to whom he's yet to propose marriage. (Yes, this sounds cheesy and it sort of is.) Hugh doesn't infiltrate Sime territory on his own, however, but instead is paired up with Klyd Farris, head of the titular House of Zeor. Even though Hugh has actually grown up as a Sime sympathizer (who expected he'd "changeover" at puberty), he's never been to Sime territory and arrives completely unprepared for what he finds.

House of Zeor is a "householding" which, running again most prevailing laws and attitudes, is a community where Simes and Gens live in harmony. Harmony is achieved by a special kind of Sime called a Channel. Unlike regular Simes, Channels don't need to kill Gens to get the selyn they need. Channels have two "selyn transport systems" and can collect selyn from dozens of Gens, just like milking cows almost, and then go to Simes, who then take the selyn -- instead of killing Gens. Channels also have selyn needs of their own, of course, and for that reason, and because they're just so important to householdings, each Channel has a Companion. Companions, Hugh learns, are Gens who produce an extraordinarily large quantity of selyn and are able to give their selyn freely to serve the appetite of the Channel. Little does Hugh know that he's natural Companion material -- for Klyd, the head channel of House of Zeor!

There's an awful lot of plot over the course of these three books.

House of Zeor is basically a dive into the world of Simes and Gens. There's the story of Hugh and Klyd, who eventually end up going down in history as the ultimate in Channel/Companion partnerships. (They are supposedly not gay, by the way, although they do become dependent on one another.) The book has a lot of adventure and action, keeping you in suspense until the very end.

The middle book, Ambrov Keon, takes place in another part of the world. It centers on another householding, Keon, starting with the arrival of Risa Tigue, a "junct" (killing) Sime who stumbles upon a householding and learns she is a Channel. Risa has a lot to learn and although she fights it, she ends up being a big part of bringing her corner of the world towards unity.

The final book, Zelerod's Doom, brings Hugh and Klyd together with the cast of of Ambrov Keon for a battle that eventually achieves the beginning of what gets to be called Unity -- the day Simes and Gens begin to forge a truce. This story gets a lot deeper into some of the relationships, in particular Hugh and Klyd's, and you see a race really struggling to figure out what they are about and how they can survive.

One thing I'll say about these books is that although I did enjoy them quite a lot, the writing style, plotting and other bits of it can get to sounding cheesy. It certainly isn't the sort of rich descriptive narrative I'm used to from reading Storm or Lynn Flewelling. Instead, it's more the kind of writing you'd find in a Star Trek book, which makes a lot of sense since the authors are huge Star Trek fans and have, in fact, written Star Trek novels. This doesn't stop the books from being enjoyable, but I think it is something that needs to be noted, in case a reader is expecting great literature.

Since reading Sime~Gen I have found myself wanting to read more and luckily, there is more to read, not only more books, which Meisha Merlin will be publishing over the next few years, but whole novels already online and a huge load of fan fiction, which the authors are OK with and even host on their own web site. I've read some absolutely stunning Sime~Gen fan fiction, some of it seeming a cut above the actual books. I am so glad Alan handed me that white box!