The Human Blend

WORKING

'''Foster, Alan Dean. The Human Blend.''' New York: Del Rey, 2010 (hardcover), 2011 (paperback). Available in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and Audiobook editions. Audiobook: David Colacci, reader. Tantor Audio, 2010.

Book 1 of The Tipping Point Trilogy. Book 2: Body Inc. (New York: Del Rey, 27 March 2012); Book 3: The Sum of Her Parts (New York: Del Rey, 27 November 2012).

Near-future crime adventure, relevant here for a society of "Naturals" and many people augmented by genetic engineering and, most relevantly, posthetic modifications: including extreme modifications.

From near the opening of the book: "Victim and murderers alike were Melds." With one of the murderers, "Jiminy's legs had been lengthened, modified, and enhanced with nanocarbonic prosthetics that allowed him to cover distances equivalent to obsolete Olympic long jump records in a single bound. Immensely useful for fleeing from pursuers. Awkward if you wanted to buy off-the-rack trousers. Each of his bone-grafted, elongated thighbones was twice the length of those belonging to a Natural of the same height. The high-strength fast-twitch muscle fibers with their bonded protein inserts that wrapped around his leg bones were three times normal thickness while the accompanying tendons had been fashioned from synthetic spider silk." Jiminy's partner in crime (literally) was a former fat boy who chose to Meld thin: "Set beside the grand majority of complex meld surgeries, his was comparatively simple. They removed half his stomach and the majority of his intestines. In their place were inserted a fuel cell-powered post-digestive NEM (nutrient extractor and maximizer) that drew its energy from the fortified liquids he drank. It was complemented by a compact prefood processor. Nothing custom was required — all were straight off-the-line components."

And these two are relatively moderate Melds; for something more impressive, there's a Meld that makes a man look a good deal like an alligator, associated with actual alligator varieties melded with control mechanisms and converted to beasts of transportation. Late in the novel, arguably the climax, the gator meld character calls forth a varied group of Floridian crocodilia (and perhaps some relatives), each with a cybernetic control-unit and designed for attack, not transportation: for a rare and impressive variety of superimposition of the cybernetic upon the reptilian.

RDE, Initial Compiler, 12, 13Feb18, 5Mar18