I had started listening to this book a while back and was interested enough in it to check it out again when it came available. I got to about 90% completion and my check out expired again. After reading some reviews and discovering that there is no climax or real ending to this book I just let it go...Things I liked :::- Melding is a really cool concept and is well represented in this book.Things I didn't like :::- There is no real plot. Main character goes from situation/ character to new situation/ character about the same thing over and over and over again.- There is no climax!- *Spoiler* Whisper and the doctor having sexual tension is totally LAME and unrealistic * END SPOLER*I gave this book two chances and it did not inspire me to finish it or go on to other books in the series. I am very glad that I got this book from the library as I would be very upset w myself if I had paid any amount of cash for it. I actually found this book because I liked the premise. When I looked it up I found that Alan Dean Foster was a NYT best seller so he should be good right? Nope. I was taken out of the story in about the second chapter after the millionth time that the author reminded me that in his world future America is flooded because of climate change. I get it, it's flooded. If I am expected to follow the character's inner dialogue (that is spoken at the collegiate proffesor level regardless of thier own lack of "book smarts" as the author puts it) I will remember that this future world of "Namerica" is flooded. The decriptions continue like this throughout the book including a page long rant by one character describing how his name is pronounced Moh-Lay and not Mole. Since he's talking to someone he's just captured and not explaining his name tag only the reader would even think anything along these lines, not the characters. That also took me right out of the story. Around this time we were introduced to the other MC Dr. Seastrom, whose unbelivable curiosity makes her acrifice everything she has worked for in her life, to investigate this thread that has been obtained by a street thug. At this point I was questioning why I had picked up this book and the second book in the trilogy. If the second book was going to be this bad I was not going to read it. I forced myself to finish this book because I wanted to give the author a chance at redemption. That never happened and I now feel like I have wasted several hours of my life. I will not be finishing the rest of the trilogy and it will be a long time, if ever, until I give Alan Dean Foster another read. Ending the first book of a series with some questions is okay. In fact you need some unanswered questions to make people want to read the rest of the series and care about the over arcing story line, but absolutely no resolution, to anything, will turn readers bitterly against your work.
What do You think about The Human Blend (2010)?
ADF is one of the best sci-fi authors ever, he creates an incredible new world here
—Kerberos
Interesting premise, didn't love the way the story played out.
—Matilda
I like Mr. Foster's writing, but didn't love the story.
—Potter
