Slipt

An oldie but a goodie!

An executive with an open mind for new things realizes that an old man next to the toxic waste dump he's had cleaned up may be more than he seems. In what should have been a simple job to get him tested, things grow more and more complicated.

We are well-grounded on all the players as things slowly, then more rapidly escalate in a game of cat and mouse. Gives weight to the old adage to never mess with old people. :P A nice, fascinating ride on the lies we tell ourselves and others.

Despite Jake's powers, all he does is entertain the poor children who live by the chemical dump or talk telepathically with his crippled niece, Amanda. But when an international company decides to eliminate those affected by their waste, Jake and Amanda have to run for their lives.

Some members of a family living next to a toxic waste dump develop paranormal abilities. Jake Picket, for example, entertains neighborhood kids by making things a little slippery. At night, he talks telepathically with his granddaughter in another state. When a corporate lackey tries to exploit the talent, he gets more than he bargained for.

Alan Dean Foster is the king of novelizations, so it is no surprise that Slipt reads as if it were the novelization of a 1980s TV movie.

An oldie but a goodie. A flap of a butterfly’s wings — exposure to a contaminated landfill for years, unexpected genetic side effects, and a greedy executive looking to move up make an explosive combination. I wish there had been a follow up story on Amanda’s children.

This is a bad book. It should be ashamed of itself! It makes a lot of promises that it does not keep.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Jake Pickett is an old man going on 70. He has always been different. He can make things "slip" with his mind. It is not telekinesis - it is molecular decomposition, but he has never used it much. It is just something to amuse the kids on the block. One day he demonstrates his abilities to a middle management type from a large coorporation. This turns out to be a mistake.

Soon Jake is hunted across america by an organisation that seems more like organisede criminals than a (semi) legal coorporation. But you can read past that if you make the effort. When you do so, the first 200 pages are thoroughly enjoyable. Fast paced, show more well composed and building up to an exciting finish.

200 pages is where you should stop reading and burn the book! Any ending you think up for yourself will be better than what A. D. Foster has written. The last 60 pages are an intolerable mess. Everything breaks apart. The main characters act contrary to earlier dispositions, the writing degenerates and having had but a stumbling sence of what he was doing when he used his ability, Jack Pickett now uses it with microsurgical precission.

Its bad. The end. show less

Nette Idee: übersinnlich begabter Renter flüchtet vor fiesen Konzerngesellen und heilt noch seine Nichte, nachdem die Feinde vernichtet sind.
Dicht und emotional erzählt, das Dilemma eines Mannes, der sehr langsam versteht, was er kann.