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May 20, Lucy Takeda rated it liked it. I tend to have difficulties with folks adapted to achieve impossible feats. That is my fairly major problem with this novel. Two thieves kill a man to steal his modified hand in order to fence it. Both of the thieves have undergone adaptations, which are considered close to standard in this setting. One thief collects an interesting blue thread that causes a seemingly infinite number of vicious folk trying to track them down.
Whispr ends up involved with assassins and highly respected and qualif I tend to have difficulties with folks adapted to achieve impossible feats. Whispr ends up involved with assassins and highly respected and qualified doctors as well as numerous shady characters. Yeah, I will go looking for the sequels. Jan 09, Wayne rated it really liked it. In recent months, I feel blessed that I have come across more than one cyberpunk themed book by random chance. Perhaps this was never considered cyberpunk by the powers that be, but for me, it scratches that itch, and that works just fine.
Lots of genetic engineering, body manipulation, and a dark yet compelling future where crime, government, and science, all collide in a whirlpool of reading entertainment. I went to find the sequels this is the first of a trilogy, of course , and they are not In recent months, I feel blessed that I have come across more than one cyberpunk themed book by random chance.
I went to find the sequels this is the first of a trilogy, of course , and they are not available at my local digital library. On the hunt for audio editions now Feb 27, Mick rated it did not like it. This come up in a random search and I added it because I have enjoyed ADF books before generally books he has written of other's stories like Star Wars, etc. I thought I would try this but it started at no where and went no where. I have no desire to read any sequel as the characters are uninteresting and the setting is all about genetic manipulation the theme which has so much lost potential.
Apr 12, Zivan rated it it was ok. By the time they reached the final showdown I was rooting for the Doctor to find a way to kill all those creeps and run off with the maguffin. Sep 03, Joe Jungers rated it really liked it Shelves: Although little is resolved regarding the maguffin by the end of the book, I enjoyed it enough that I've reserved the next two in the series at my local library. Jun 26, Mom rated it liked it. First of a series that ends abruptly in the midst of one adventure after another.
Humans have been melded into specialized creatures to adapt to a hot, wet environment and particular trades or to achieve certain attributes appealing to individuals. Sep 10, Larry rated it did not like it. Mar 04, Christina Gauthier rated it did not like it. Waste of my damn time. Aug 12, Facedeer rated it did not like it Shelves: I read this book because the sequel had been recommended to me and I figured I should read the first one in the series to ensure I had the background for it.
Turns out this wasn't necessary, though. I can summarize the entire book, and all the relevant setup that happens in it, in just a few essentially spoiler-free lines: Protagonist thug randomly murders a passerby, unwittingly steals a macguffin from the corpse, and spends the whole book being chased by Very Serious Hitmen trying to get it bac I read this book because the sequel had been recommended to me and I figured I should read the first one in the series to ensure I had the background for it.
Protagonist thug randomly murders a passerby, unwittingly steals a macguffin from the corpse, and spends the whole book being chased by Very Serious Hitmen trying to get it back without ever learning anything about what it is. Yeah, not very good. In fact, very not good. I've liked other Allan Dean Foster books in the past so this was particularly disappointing and I feel like going into a bit more detail about some of the other bad things in here.
The protagonist, Whispr, is not a sympathetic character and doesn't seem to gain any redeeming qualities or personality over the course of the story. He starts out as a lowlife homicidal mugger, killing a random passerby just so he can rob his corpse. The first half of the book is him being on the run from unexpectedly intense law enforcement hunting for him, not even really aware that the thing he stole is anything other than "a very valuable thing" and with his only goal being to find a fence with whom he can cash it in.
By the second half of the book he's started to cotton on to the fact that the people after him are probably shadowy hitmen and assassins rather than just ordinary police, but his goal still doesn't really change. He does develop a creepy crush on the secondary protagonist for no apparent reason, I guess that's some character development Yeah, there's a secondary protagonist who's a somewhat more sympathetic character, an altruistic doctor who gets roped in to the story because she's actually interested in solving the "mystery".
But she only joins the plot in the second half and her character is just as unformed as the main protagonist. Foster doesn't establish why she has decided it's so important to solve this mystery, to such a degree that she leaves her comfortable civilian practice to follow a criminal around getting shot at. They meet essentially by coincidence, really. I have to admit I started skimming a bit after the halfway point. Pretty sure I didn't miss much though. So, nothing much happens plot-wise, and none of the characters are particularly compelling. That leaves worldbuilding as the remaining opportunity for redemption, and the book doesn't do very well here either.
The setting has a fairly generic "biopunk" feel to it and the book never misses an opportunity to describe the biomods or "melds" that everybody's got. But Foster just seemed to throw a bunch of random ideas in here rather than working to craft and describe a coherent setting. A big deal is made out of how people get biomods mainly to reflect their "inner selves" rather than for practical reasons, and then most of the mods described subsequently are things people got done to make them better at their jobs.
Fishermen have reels of fishing line replacing their fingers, something so impractical for everyday life I have a hard time even picturing it, and "waterproof skin" as opposed to the highly water-permeable skin normal humans have, I guess? On one page a surgeon is described as having fingers replaced with surgical tools, and then on the very next page a character is operated on by him and Foster describes how surgeons don't actually touch their patients any more thanks to modern medical technology.
It's apparent that Foster just wanted to have a freakshow society and used whatever came to mind at any given time to justify it. That just seems like bad writing. And although the mystery of the MacGuffin has yet to be revealed by the end of the book, I can't help but suspect that the villains assuming they're villains were flagrantly holding the idiot ball by having a lone courier wandering around carrying something so tremendously important and unique where a couple of random lowlife muggers could kill him and take it.
The hitmen they send to retrieve it are prone to the counterproductive premature murdering of the people they're interrogating so I don't have high hopes. Guess we'll see how things go in the sequel. Feb 03, J. Dobias rated it liked it Recommends it for: So I thought I'd try this one out and see how his writing has improved. The premise is pretty good and the first chapter kept my interest; but then something happened and it might be related somehow to the fact that the author has quite a few film adaptations to his credit.
The story starts out with two melds, Jimney and Whispr, as they roll another meld for his parts, or at least his advanced hand. Later Whispr makes a statement that either sounds like he didn't know all of that or he's trying to downplay what really went down. The bottom line is that the man has a piece of interesting tech woven into his clothing and they sign their own death warrants, when they take that.
They are soon to be pursued by the police and two other shadowy agencies. Ingrid Seastrom discovers a rather interesting added bit of tech in a meld done through some of the cheaper meld markets. The tech seems to be some sort of impossible metal that is quantum-ly entangled and over a period of time vanishes leaving her with no evidence. We later discover that Dr. Seastrom may have some hazy edge to her practice that borders on illicit; though possibly she has twisted moral reasoning behind what she does.
This is not well defined and almost comes as a surprise although as a reader I was certain that the goal was to ultimately mix Dr. The next part of the novel is the cinematic influenced dance with death and destiny that brings Whispr through one desperate situation after another until he reaches the doorstep of the Dr Seastrom. In his wake are a number of victims who are mostly killed by way of brief association with Whispr. This made each meeting of Whispr with a new contact quite predictable in that the reader knows someone will soon show up and his contact would be permanently silenced.
Many times the climactic scene was right while Whispr was there making the escape more thrilling. Oddly something happens, inexplicably, with the meeting with Dr. Seastrum and it takes much longer for the brute squad to catch up. By that time they have enough warning that the two have escaped. There is a bit of haziness about why Ingrid ends up finally on the run with Whispr; though there could have been any number of fair reasons it seems mostly an almost clinical yet obsessive interest in the new technology and what it might potentially mean to her patients yet even that is unclear.
Murder and mayhem now follow at a slight bit slower pace; the possible excuse for that being that the two together make a better team against those in pursuit. In fact, it seems that that isn't so; as the reader will see that that is more of a self delusion; while coming up close on the end.
This is a serial so while the end is somewhat complete for this story the reader is left with a sense there is a lot more to come and we'll have to check those out to find the rest of the story. This is a fair offering in the SSF department and has element familiar to steampunk In the augmented human quantity and the sense of a dystopic future. Though I have this sense that this novel could be compacted by removing some of the excess cinematic specials, there is something to saying that it would then deprive the reader of some of the basic journey to get to the point.
I always like Alan Dean Foster. He's one of the few writers who often makes me have to look up words, although in this book it's because he made a bunch of them up and lots of them are jarring, like 'maniped'. The book itself has a neat setting, a couple of protagonists who are not very engaging maybe 3 total? I'm not in a hurry to seek out the others but I may one day since it's very definitely the first part of a trilogy and leaves the main story hanging.
Nov 07, Derek rated it did not like it Shelves: Now, I really like Alan Dean Foster. Sure, he's the undisputed king of movie novelizations Star Wars: So I was looking forward to this. I should have known it was too good to be true when I read the blurb: It would be interesting to see their different takes on the issue. It still would be, but I don't think it's an unreasonable spoiler to tell you that if criminals are ever punished that way in Foster's books, it isn't in this first volume of the Tipping Point series.
In this book, the genetic engineering and bodily manipulation "melding" is all voluntary. He delights in using words he's almost certain you'll never have read or heard before, and when you look up a word in your best dictionary you'll see that if it has four possible meanings, he's used it in a way to make the best use of all four.
In this book, Foster also delights in using words I'm certain you've never read — because they don't exist! At the very beginning, two young thugs murder a man for his artificial hand. But they don't just cut it off his dead arm, oh no! Sorry, Alan, you may have just caught me at the wrong time, but I won't be reading volume two. View all 5 comments. Feb 03, Dave rated it it was ok Shelves: Published in late , it is a world where surgical enhancements and alterations are commonplace among people, especially the criminal element.
The story takes place in the relatively near future, in Savannah, just after two thieves commit a murder. The pace of the story is fast, and Foster keeps things moving and the main subjects on the run. It is almost as if Foster feels that if he keeps things moving quickly, the reader might notice the serious problems with the story. There are many problems with this book, and it is difficult to see how Foster will manage to correct those in the rest of the series. The story is a basic one, the hero gets a hold of a mysterious object which everyone is after, and spends the rest of the story trying to stay alive and find out what the object actually is.
The general storyline could work and has worked before, but the author must do something to make it at least appear new, and for me it was all too typical of this type of story. What Foster does well is create some interesting characters. He spends a great deal of time describing them in detail; physically as well as personality. If anything, Foster spends too much time on this instead of developing the story. He also makes a very serious error with the major character of Dr. She simply does not behave in a way which is believable for the character he created. Seastrom, you are left with very little.
There are some trilogies where you can read the first book on its own and not need the rest of the series; this is not one of them. This is not a fatal flaw, but it does make it that much more difficult to assign a rating to this book when the other volumes are not yet available. Overall, this is an unexceptional story, with a standard plot and major character issues. Foster has shown that he can be a much better author than this book would indicate, and less you are someone who has to read everything Alan Dean Foster puts out, you probably want to skip this one.
This was a great book. The mystery was well plotted, the main characters nicely fleshed out, and the world so weird and full of life and beyond what I expected when I picked up the book. It was never a dull moment listening to this novel. For much of the book, we follow Whispr, a once fat kid who became a fat adult, who decided he wanted to be rail thin for the rest of his life. So he made it happen with the right blend of DNA and a melder.
But I got to know him, watched him struggle, treat his few friends decently. So I was already attached to him before we really got quality time with Dr. Seastrom, a very upstanding citizen. Set in a swampy, humid Savannah for much of the book, the world has learned to deal with a changing ecosystem. The world has heated up and plants and animals have easily moved into the expanding muggy, humid ecosystems. Many locals opt to have gills melded in or water proof skin for feet to aid in fishing or other jobs that require a long slog in the swamps on a daily basis.
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Laney looks 16, but is quite a bit older.. It makes me feel like I am part of a police chase. I hope you enjoy the books I have written and continue to follow my journey. Lori takes her new story, Human Blend, in a fresh new direction. They had a nice depth to them, a balance often hard achieved with so much action in a story. Melds are the most fascinating aspect of this world, people can not only improve vision; remove or add body weight; and change hair, eye and skin color, but also have gills for breathing underwater, implant feathers or a tail, or even transform themselves almost compl Foster does an amazing job of world building, describing a future where water levels have risen so far that many coastal cities are built on stilts and the population frequently alters their appearance and abilities with "Melds".
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Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Originally written in as a look into 10 years into the future of life on Earth, more pro mantle in Australia. The only faults I found with the book was the short jump into the future, I think perhaps it would have been better if it was set in a more distant future. The technology used in this book is far too advanced foe and some of the terminology of technology seems a little forced. I just can't imagine anyone calling a mobile phone a communicator or an iPad a pocket book. With that being said these issues are mostly minor and you can see past them as the storyline, characterisations and plots are excellent.
Reading this book past the timeline it's set in, it's best to treat it as an alternative reality. It is the what if scenario of how bad global warming could get and it quite possibly may still happen in a more distant future. Do not treat this book as an attempted prediction however. I recommend this book to any lover of science fiction, it is thoroughly engaging, despite its minor issues.
It's just a shame more people don't know about it! Future Australia is nasty. A couple are struggling to get along in a savage look at nearish future Australia where reality tv is actually worse - betting on medical options and other things like that to raise funds, in real time. Apart from that, as the title might indicate a bit of ecology to be found - and it definitely is. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The Tipping Point Trilogy. Diuturnity's Dawn Founding of the Commonwealth. Sponsored products related to this item What's this? Dark Horse Jim Knighthorse Book 1.
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About the Author Alan Dean Foster has written in a variety of genres, including hard science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, Western, historical, and contemporary fiction. Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention foster alan dean future whispr thread melds meld doctor ends body pages mysterious ingrid police kill ending jiminy savannah main. There was a problem filtering reviews right now.
Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Alan Dean Foster is a great story teller. As a word smith there are many authors who are better putting down pretty words. This hard science fiction is not his best work but I liked it well enough to buy, read and enjoy all 3 books.
Each book is a complete story ark but after reading the first I wanted follow the characters further on their journey. Do read them in order. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. I have found in the past that Alan Dean Foster's works are easy to read and draw you in quickly. The "heros" of this tale are somewhat of a departure for Mr.
Foster in that they stand at oposite poles of a modern society. One character is an unprincipled low-life "freak" and the other is a consumate professional. The two take a chance encounter and meld into an uneasy partnership that starts with curiosity and developes into an unintamate affection through travails of intense action with both authorities and an underworld enemy, yet to be defined, trying desperatly to protect a futuristic electronic message of great and as yet unrevealed import.
Our two protagonists are engaged in a desperate search for answers where the stakes are knowledge, and enlightenment, smeared libeerally with the profit motive of the basest member. A solid read which I'm looking forward to continue in its sequels. One person found this helpful.
Had fun reading this book and the human interaction!
I am starting the next book NOW! I cannot wait to see what happens! So I thought I'd try this one out and see how his writing has improved. The premise is pretty good and the first chapter kept my interest; but then something happened and it might be related somehow to the fact that the author has quite a few film adaptations to his credit. The story starts out with two melds, Jimney and Whispr, as they roll another meld for his parts, or at least his advanced hand.
Jimney is employing a device that stops the man's melded heart and his intent seems to include knowledge that this will kill the victim. Later Whispr makes a statement that either sounds like he didn't know all of that or he's trying to downplay what really went down. The bottom line is that the man has a piece of interesting tech woven into his clothing and they sign their own death warrants, when they take that. They are soon to be pursued by the police and two other shadowy agencies. Ingrid Seastrom discovers a rather interesting added bit of tech in a meld done through some of the cheaper meld markets.
The tech seems to be some sort of impossible metal that is quantum-ly entangled and over a period of time vanishes leaving her with no evidence. We later discover that Dr. Seastrom may have some hazy edge to her practice that borders on illicit; though possibly she has twisted moral reasoning behind what she does. This is not well defined and almost comes as a surprise although as a reader I was certain that the goal was to ultimately mix Dr. The next part of the novel is the cinematic influenced dance with death and destiny that brings Whispr through one desperate situation after another until he reaches the doorstep of the Dr Seastrom.
In his wake are a number of victims who are mostly killed by way of brief association with Whispr. This made each meeting of Whispr with a new contact quite predictable in that the reader knows someone will soon show up and his contact would be permanently silenced.
The Human Blend (The Tipping Point Trilogy) and millions of other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more Book 1 of 3 in the Tipping Point Series. Human Blend has ratings and 69 reviews. (Blend Trilogy #1) .. I recently ran across the blurb for this book on one of the Amazon conversation threads.
Many times the climactic scene was right while Whispr was there making the escape more thrilling. Oddly something happens, inexplicably, with the meeting with Dr. Seastrum and it takes much longer for the brute squad to catch up. By that time they have enough warning that the two have escaped.
There is a bit of haziness about why Ingrid ends up finally on the run with Whispr; though there could have been any number of fair reasons it seems mostly an almost clinical yet obsessive interest in the new technology and what it might potentially mean to her patients yet even that is unclear. Murder and mayhem now follow at a slight bit slower pace; the possible excuse for that being that the two together make a better team against those in pursuit. In fact, it seems that that isn't so; as the reader will see that that is more of a self delusion; while coming up close on the end.
This is a serial so while the end is somewhat complete for this story the reader is left with a sense there is a lot more to come and we'll have to check those out to find the rest of the story. This is a fair offering in the SSF department and has element familiar to steampunk In the augmented human quantity and the sense of a dystopic future.
Though I have this sense that this novel could be compacted by removing some of the excess cinematic specials, there is something to saying that it would then deprive the reader of some of the basic journey to get to the point.
These books are not the standard paperback format, so that can be annoying, and each is a little light in the size but once again we have a new and interesting setting developed by ADF and characters that are not only different but compelling. Like all of his other books I've read though, well developed characters, solid plot lines, and a surprise twist or two are standard for this author. I have read the first two books in this trilogy.
I had some difficulty adapting to the new circumstances of the fictional human future but Foster's writing skills soon captivated my imagination. Foster's word use and sentence structure are at their peak. The subtle humor may pass unnoticed by the less initiated in Foster lore, but I find it most refreshing. I am anxious to read the final book in the trilogy. Another start to what looks to be a great trilogy. Interesting concepts, some not so far into the future I think.