Halfskin Boxed

Halfskin #1-3

by Tony Bertauski

"Underground Reviews 2015 Top Pick Award"

HALFSKIN (#1)
Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any cell in your body. No more kidney failure, no severed spines or blood disease. No cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we become stronger, we become smarter and prettier.

We become better.

At what point are we no longer human?

Nix Richards nearly died in a car accident when he was young. Biomites saved his life. Ten years later, he’s not so lucky. The Halfskin Laws decree a human composed of 50% biomites is no longer human. Halfskins have no legal rights and will have their biomites shutdown. It’s not called murder, merely deactivation.

Cali Richards has been Nix’s legal guardian since their parents died. She has lost far too many people in her life to let the government take Nix. She is a nanobiometric engineer and will discover how to hide him. But even brilliance can succumb to the pressure of suffering. And technology can’t cure insanity.

Cali and Nix keep a slippery grip on reality as they elude a maniacal federal agent dedicated to saving humanity from what he calls 'The Biomite Plague'.

CLAY (#2)
Jamie wants to be a halfskin.

Her life has become dull and pointless. If she had more biomites—synthetic stem cells that promise hope—she could take control of her life. But Jamie’s body is already 49.9% biomites. The rest is clay—her God-given organic cells. Any more biomites and she becomes a halfskin. And halfskins are shutdown.

But there is a way.

Black market biomites, called nixes, can’t be detected by the government’s halfskin hunter, M0ther. Jamie would have to sacrifice her clay to get the nixes, but they would make her halfskin without anyone knowing. Including M0ther. But first she has to find them.

Nix Richards can help. He’s the first halfskin to escape M0ther and Jamie has something he wants. He’ll need her to help him find a fabricator. He’ll betray anyone to get it, even those closest to him.

This psychological thriller will keep Nix and Jamie second-guessing every move while they elude M0ther and Marcus Anderson, the man that wants to rid the world of biomites. But in the end, they’ll all discover just how deep the betrayal goes.

BRICKS (#3)
Fabbers, slabbers and fakies were dehumanizing slurs for fabricated humans. Bricks, however, was the People’s favorite.

The Sentience Laws were created to protect the rights of Bricks, but the laws didn’t last long. Banished to the remote isolation of the Settlement, Paul and Raine are sentenced to live the rest of their lives in the wilderness.

Escape and freedom will depend on Marcus Anderson, the man responsible for all the suffering that’s been endured since the invention of biomites—the synthetic stem cells used to fabricate halfskins and Bricks. Marcus needs them in order to find the “powers-that-be,” the man he believes is truly responsible for the world’s suffering. Their journey will take them to a tiny island in the South Atlantic, where the truth is much closer than they realize. That’s where they will discover the “powers-that-be”.

And so much more.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

1039 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 17, 2015

About the author

Get my books FREE. Tell me where to send them at http://bertauski.com

He grew up in the Midwest where the land is flat and the corn is tall. The winters are bleak and cold. He hated winters.

He always wanted to write. But writing was hard. And he wasn’t very disciplined. The cold had nothing to do with that, but it didn’t help. That changed in grad school.

After several attempts at a proposal, his major advisor was losing money on red ink and advised him to figure it out. Somehow, he did.

After grad school, he and his wife and two very little children moved to the South in Charleston, South Carolina where the winters are spring and the summers are a sauna (cliche but dead on accurate). That’s when he started teaching and writing articles for trade magazines. He eventually published two textbooks on landscape design. He then transitioned to writing a column for the Post and Courier. They were all great gigs, but they weren’t fiction.

That was a few years later.

His daughter started reading before she could read, pretending she knew the words in books she propped on her lap. His son was a different story. In an attempt to change that, he began writing a story with him. They made up a character, gave him a name, and something to do. As with much of parenting, it did not go as planned. But the character got stuck in his head.

He wanted out.

A few years later, Socket Greeny was born. It was a science fiction trilogy that was gritty and thoughtful. That was 2005.

He has been practicing Zen since he was 23 years old. A daily meditator, he wants to instill something meaningful in his stories that appeals to a young adult crowd as well as adult. Think Hunger Games. He hadn’t planned to write fiction, didn’t even know if he had anymore stories in him after Socket Greeny.

Turns out he did.

Reviews

[S. Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me just say that biomites are what I hope humanity uses to extend the lifespan in our near future. As a scifi reader and writer I spend a lot of time hoping that I’ll live forever and even transfer my consciousness into a robot body. Weird? Sure, but I’m happy to wear that mantle.

The Halfskin trilogy explores this possibility in a dystopian world that cherishes and persecutes synthetic life in equal measure. Religion and science are at one another’s throats, with characters taking sides, and sometimes finding themselves blurring the lines in a search for deeper meaning and to understand what truly makes a person a person. This was a wonderful subject matter that I have also explored in a couple of my novels. Bertauski delivered on the back cover blurb! I was very satisfied with the read. Prepare to wonder what a soul is and how it may be twined with the body. This is a concept that the anime Ghost in the Shell first exposed me to, and a longstanding fascination. After all if technology could copy your mind and place it elsewhere, or even transfer it out of your brain, how would we know if the copy is truly somehow still the original? If something were missing, would we be able to detect that?

I received a free audible code in exchange for a review. Any review. That fact that it’s a good one is because the book is good. Which has nothing to do with how awesome I am. You’ll have to find that out for yourself @S_Shane_Thomas on Twitter.

Do you love well executed shifting points of view that drive a larger story? Not a glimpse through even the smallest character’s eyes was wasted here. Every perspective drives the reader toward the big question. Who is in control of the biomites, mother, and the harsh laws set to isolate anyone who is composed of greater than fifty percent biomites.

Toward the end I began to wonder if being made of the right biomites (you’ll know them when you get there) is like being Buddha or like being the Borg!

The world of Halfskin and its star inhabitants are original and leave a striking impression. Some of the imagery used to describe the Dream-eater was beautiful and compelling.

[Tony Bertauski]

BERTAUSKI STARTER LIBRARY is FREE!
Get 3 full-length novels and 1 novella…Just tell me where to send them.
http://bertauski.com/

[[ J o ]]

Read the first book Halfskin. 1 star so will not continue with the series.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long book, but I enjoyed the biomites, alternate realities, multiple possibilities.

[Robinhj · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised how good this was. I only started it because it was being offered cheap but it is well worth paying full price for. The plot is somewhere on the border between techno thriller and SF and is refreshingly original. Without giving away any spoilers, the setting is a near future where someone has invented 'biomites' which are basically artificial stem cells and with these most of the world illnesses & injuries can be cured with a simple injection and everyone gets a small dose at birth to clear away any genetic defects. The problem is that many people opt to keep buying more doses for less essential needs like IQ top-ups and cosmetic changes and a law has been put in place to say that anyone with more than 49.9% biomites must have them all 'shut down' which is just a euphemism for saying the person will be executed as nobody can survive having half the cells in their body killed. The problem is that the biomites reproduce slowly so anyone who has had more than the minimum birth dose is sitting on a time bomb and our protagonist had been involved in a childhood accident that needed a lot of biomites so he is already pushing the limit in his late teens. Meanwhile his sister is fighting to build a better biomite before it is too late.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook: I liked books 1 & 2 better than book 3 in this box set, but all three stories were entertaining. I thought the characters were complicated and not always likeable, but there were incidents which helped to explain their actions. I admired all the ways that the plot twisted and unfolded to keep my attention. I was moved by the deeper themes that resonated within the stories. I thought David Dietz's narration was good, and his performance kept my attention. I found a code for this audiobook on the author's website. I did not receive any financial gain to post a review. This was my honest opinions about this box set.

[Sophie Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole caboodle!

Have not written a review in ages.
All I can say is these books appealed to me in an emotional, physical, Neurobiological and scientific level.
I waa lucky enough to be on my holidays when I started with this.
Incredibke thought processes blending religion, science and just plain humanity together.
I take my hat off!
It's made me think.
No spoilers here.
Personally I think it's brilliant. A little slow at times is my inly complaint.
Read it.

[Dreamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting read.

Having previously been introduced to this author by his "Bear" series, I was pleasantly surprised to explore a different world, one that shed an interesting light on discrimination, overbearing government, and the human soul.

One thing I can say about Tony Bertauski, I have yet to be bored reading his stories! Thanks.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never want to step away

Anyone want to get out of your own head for a bit? So far, anything I've read by Bertauski will make you not want to return to your own reality without changing it. We can do better.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a world where people have the option of fixing physical problems with biomites, the conflict between those who have them, those who don't (clays) and the grand controller plays out. Paul, Jaime, Raine, Nix, Marcus and others set the pace.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I liked it

It took me a long time to get through this series but I liked it overall. It is an interesting idea about what makes a person a person. It connects to the forever land series in a minor way but not directly. Overall interesting.

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeps you thinking

A dystopian series to keep you going and trying to guess what comes next. Definitely not a predictable story but is descriptive and easily imagined

[Amanda Arceneaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

This genre was not something I would usually read... but I loved it so much!! I couldn’t put it down. I will miss these characters.

[Bill Pye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scary future

Man and machine , machine and man take your pick. Where it begins where it ends. What is lost? Scary.

[SHA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audible review. The performance by the readers was excellent. However, the story was only good.

[vmt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biomites.
I really enjoy Tony's books. Get a you out of your own head. Excellent reads.

[Elena Alvarez Dosil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have received a copy of these books in audio format from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

The story is set in the near future. Mankind has invented biomites, a kind of synthetic stem cells in order to cure diseases, save lives and even improve one's appearance. In the beginning a person had to be at least 12 years old to get seeded (getting biomites implanted) but Nix got them when he was 8 after a terrible car accident where his parents died. Biomites seem like the answer to many problems, but there is a catch, like cancer cells they reproduce without control, and the Halfskin Laws do not consider people human beings when their total biomites reach 50% of their body. When this happens, their biomites are shut down, and consequently, the 'Halfskin' person dies.

Marcus Anderson is the person in charge to enforce these Halfskin Laws, and he witnesses every shutdown in the country, convinced that he is doing the right thing since the human body is a God's present and substituting its parts is just pure abomination.

In the first book, Cali, Nix's big sister and a nanobiometric engineer, will try to save Nix's life. He is just a teenager, but has reached halfskin status and Marcus will shut him down.

The second book is titled Clay, and this is the given name to the part of the body that is not substituted by biomites. Here 'briks' will be introduced in the story. Briks are fabricated humans, 100% made by biomites. Initially all bricks were agents working for Mother, but later on some people start fabricating bricks illegally. There will be transcendent questions about the morality of fabricating a brick and whether a brick will feel different to a human been.

I loved book one, but I think book two was my favorite. There was a clear evolution in the characters and the new ones were very interesting and complex. Their relationships and conversations were fluid and credible, and I felt that I knew them.

There were a couple of very good twists in both books which made them even greater. The only thing I did not quite get was the dream land and its importance. Its introduction in book one felt a bit artificial but I suspected that something so atypical would be of importance later.

And it was, mostly in book three. This book is titled Bricks, and it is mainly about the life of all those bricks that were illegally fabricated. The topic was good but the execution was not as good as in the previous two books. The story is well written but the second half feels very long and slow. There is a big twist that could be more or less expected, which did not make a lot of sense to me. It could be because I was not very keen on the dream world idea. I am also aware of how difficult is to give a satisfactory end to a very good series.

All in all, it is an extraordinary trilogy which deserves to be read by any sci-fiction/technothriller fan.

All three books are narrated by David Dietz. It took me some minutes to get used to his voice but then I really enjoyed the narration. He is really good at making voices and keeping them consistent all along the three books. I could know who was talking at any moment and he made a fantastic impersonation of Marcus Anderson. At some point I stopped thinking of a narrator making voices and thinking of different people living the story. The story was very good, but David Dietz made it superb.

[Leslie Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audio box set contains all three books in the Halfskin series. I definitely recommend reading the books in order, which is why the boxed set is great. The narrator was good overall, and his regular voice is pleasant, but some of the voices that were given to certain characters had an irritating quality to them (a little whiny to my ear). Overall, the series was good, and if you are a fan of science fiction, I recommend giving it a try.

Book #1 - Halfskin: This was a truly engrossing science fiction novel. The author blends technology, religion, and law seamlessly. Though there are probably similarly premised books out there, I think this book was told creatively and has lots of original aspects.

Book #2 - Clay: This is the second book in the Halfskin trilogy, and I think this one was even better than the first. This book is much more thought-provoking as the blending of science and religion pose questions of ethics, morality, and eternity. The premise of this book was really interesting and seems like it could become reality in a not-too-distant future.

Book #3 - Bricks: This book focuses on the definition of reality, as many people are coming down with "dream sickness" where they live in a made-up reality. I can totally see the relevance of this book to modern society, where we use technology to escape reality, and can see humans going to the extremes written about in this book in time.

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science and Humanity collide

Intriguing take on the future. What becomes of humans as medical procedures become unnecessary due to biomites. Microscopic machines that can heal disease and broken bones. Heal the mind of disease. Make someone more attractive. But cross a line a big Momma will come after you. Or does she? It gets confusing who is actually in charge. Who has the compassion for human beings and who wants them destroyed? I don't want to give away anything so I say if you are interested, read these books you probably won't be disappointed. Kinda have to wrap your mind around science and spirituality at least in the third book. The first two books are all action.

[Jody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this in exchange for an honest review. I did enjoy the story. It has an interesting premise and well executed. The characters were well drawn and developed and the pace was well laid out. I recommend at least the first two books. Where it lost me was the final book, "Bricks". This is where the story got, at least for me, convoluted and confusing. The interweaving of elements of religion/multiple realities/ existentialism left me struggling to follow. The fate of some of the characters is unclear and the ending somewhat unsatisfying. In my opinion, a poor finish to an initially well executed trilogy.

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this set. I had read Foreverland and the Claus series first so I was familiar with his creative world Building. I began to wonder at connections to Foreverland series at the first mention of "dreamland".

I have to read the end of Foreverland again because I seem to have a couple of important character locations confused.

As always, the series kept me entranced and any interruptions to my reading were deeply resented.

[kenneth h. robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long, Long Tale Told in Three Books

Quirky inventiveness and interesting concepts are merged. In the end it is difficult to tell characters apart, the separate lines of plot become one.

[Ryan Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts better than it ends. The idea was great.

It just ended up dragging out to long in the end. The premise of the series is great and might be a look into our future.

[Tekgypsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Series

Good read. Well written. Excellent character development. Good premise. Good plot development. Well worth the time. I would follow this author.