Shift

Gate of Orpheus Trilogy #1

by Tim Kring

A new caliber of thriller set at the collision of ’60s counterculture and the rise
of dark forces in world government. Heroes creator Tim Kring injects history with a supernatural, hallucinogenic what-if.
 
Set in the crucible of the 1960s, Shift is the story of Chandler Forrestal, a man whose life is changed forever when he is unwittingly dragged into a CIA mind-control experiment. After being given a massive dose of LSD, Chandler de­velops a frightening array of mental powers. With his one-in-a-billion brain chemistry, Chandler’s heightened perception uncovers a plot to assassi­nate President Kennedy.
 
Propelled to prevent the conspiracy of assassi­nation and anarchy, Chandler becomes a target for deadly forces in and out of the government and is pursued across a simmering landscape peopled by rogue CIA agents, Cuban killers, Mafia madmen, and ex-Nazi scientists…all the while haunted by a beautiful woman with her own scandalous past to purge, her own score to settle. Chased across America, will Chandler be able to harness his “shift” and rewrite history?
 
Combining the nonstop style of Ludlum with the sinister, tangled conspiracies of DeLillo and Dick, and featuring cameos from Lee Harvey Oswald to Timothy Leary to J. Edgar Hoover, Shift is a thriller guaranteed to be equal parts heart-stopping and thought-provoking.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Alternate History, Historical

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Tim Kring is the creator, an executive producer, and a writer for Heroes. Kring has worked as an executive producer for all four seasons of the show. He is the most prolific writer for the series.

Tim Kring is well-versed in writing and creating entertainment. He began his writing career for the hit TV show Knight Rider in the early 1980s. In 1987 Kring penned Teen Wolf Too alongside Jeph Loeb. He is best known for creating the hit television shows Crossing Jordan, and Strange World.

Following Heroes, Tim co-wrote the novel Shift with Dale Peck. In 2011, Fox gave Tim an order for the pilot of his new drama Touch.

Reviews

[Darcia Helle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the premise for this story. Set in the 1960s, the plot revolves around LSD and mind control experiments, along the lines of MK-Ultra experiments done by the CIA. The writing is great, as far as the author's phrasing and technique. However, for me, the story is all over the place. At times, I felt like I was the one on acid! I was a third of the way into the book before the characters even began to link together enough so that the story made sense. There were too many characters jumping around in too many places. I had to work to follow the plot line and that made it impossible for me to get lost in the story.

** I received a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.com. **

[diana marcela Ballestas · Rating 3 out of 5]

bueno, que puedo decir, la historia me gustó, pero siempre hay un pero y al final no se que pasó. Creo q es mi primer thriller por lo que le dejaré el margen de la duda.

La historia comenzó un poco enreversada, muchos personajes, muchos hechos sucedidos simultáneamente y aparentemente sin relacion pero que poco a poco van cogiendo forma, y te van atrapando en un mundo de intrigas donde todo tiene que ver con todo y todos manipulan a todos para obtener su beneficio, aunque este no se vea realmente claro en algún momento, sin embargo, cuanto todo esto realmente comienza a tener sentido realmente ves q ya esta llegando el final, un final que, a mi gusto, fue un poco demasiado rápido, un poco demasiado ambiguo y un poco demasiado pobre.

[C.A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting idea but I found the excution VERY slow and had a difficult time caring for the main character as we didn't get to know him very well. They did do a good job protraying the atomsphere of the early cold war very well.

[Matias Mestas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kring's 'Shift' never really gets into high gear

Set in the sixties, ‘Shift’ is a novel that aims for the sky but at some point it gets lost somewhere else. We don’t really know where. Written as the beginning of a trilogy that, as far as I’m concerned, hasn’t been continued, the book introduces a pretty good idea, plot and characters; however, as the story goes on, it begins to erode itself. Is it worth reading? I guess. Does it leave you with more questions than answers? Definitely, and not in a good way.


This thriller was written by Tim Kring (creator of the ‘Heroes’ tv series) and Dale Peck back in 2010 and it fell into my hands in a local book fair some time ago. It’s about mind control experiments that the CIA used to run back in the sixties, LSD, Cuba, conspiracies, the Mafia, the JFK assassination. You can see why the premise is awesome, at least for someone like me. Who doesn’t like a political thriller mixed with secret agents, drugs and conspiracies? Oh, come on!

On the bright side, besides the whole idea of the story, I think the characters and their respective backgrounds are pretty solid. It feels like you really get to know each one throughout the chapters and that is something that doesn’t happen often. Also, I’m not a very big fan of long descriptions, but Kring (or Peck) manages to achieve both a dynamic and simple style of doing it that you end up really hooked. For example, the mind control or the LSD trips. Another good thing would be towards the end, when he perfectly combines parts of the story with real JFK killing theories. It makes you go watch that fatal motorcade video over and over again. That same thing happened to me, in a whole other level, after reading 11/22/63, by Stephen King (that one is a must).

On the other hand, I must say that, though the plot is great, the way the authors manage to develop it is not that good. It’s all over the place at times, constantly mixing jawdropping passages with bad ones. Moreover, I think that the extension of the book plus the quantity of characters help bringing down the rythm. Yes, they are excellent characters, but there are so many... And all of that builds a confusion you can’t easily escape from. Furthermore, there are intriguing questions that are presented to the reader almost at the beginning and at the end you realize there is no answer to those. That really pissed me off. I mean, I get that it is the first part of a series but, man, I read almost 500 pages, I want answers.

All in all, ‘Shift’ leaves much to be desired. The perception is that, somehow, the novel has so much potential but doesn’t really live up to the expectations it builds. In a nutshell, it never really gets into high gear.

My rating for the book: 2 stars. Regular.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Did LSD kill JFK?" That tagline drew me to yet another JFK conspiracy related novel. The premise is intriguing; it lends another level, scientific experimentation and mysticism, to the different conspiracies that abound-Mafia, FBI, CIA, Cuba, and of course Oswald and Ruby. But it doesn't do it well enough to draw me back to complete the trilogy and that bothers me. I don't like leaving something incomplete but this book was a chore. The entire story felt too disjointed. It does finally come together but only after 2/3 or 3/4 of the book. There, you finally discover how any of the book has to do with JFK and those other entities previously mentioned. Furthermore, it seemed too fantastical to me. I'm not sure why it didn't resonate, why I didn't like it. After all,Stephen King's 11/23/63 was long and winding but oh so beautiful, engaging, tense, and mystical, King's trademark. Maybe, here, I wanted a sense of realism. Maybe books 2 and 3 go about resolving it all and making the experimentation work as a story...so maybe one day I'll give them a shot...but until then...I'd recommend 11/23/63 in lieu of this! But, if you like LSD experimentation that turns individuals into telepaths and mind readers, and you are a JFK assassination conspiracy theory enthusiast, then maybe give the trilogy a chance.

P.S. Out of it all, I did like this passage:

"They're going to say that what happened today changed things. Don't you believe them. The shift happened a long time ago, and it's a log bigger than you or me...You should read that book the director gave you-or Fahrenheit 451, or 1984, or, hell, The Manchurian Candidate, the very novel that inspired Project Orpheus. The sci-fi guys have always known good and evil aren't mutually exclusive, let alone capitalism and communism. That two opposing forces come to look more and more like each other the longer they fight. Up till now it's been fiction. But after this it'll be truth. The thing is, though, the truth will have turned into lies, because everything will be about 'subjectivity, everything will be about 'distrust of authority.' It'll be chaos masquerading as reason until someone or something comes along with the authority to lull people into believing that some truths really are incontrovertible: God, maybe, or country, or who knows, maybe just selfishness as opposed to self-inspection and self-improvement. But no matter how it plays out, it translates into big profit for anyone willing to exploit people's fears. Twenty years in intelligence and I never really got that...Not till I met you-someone idealistic enough to actually believe everything his government told him, even though it resulted in hiw own persecution."--p316-317

[Mystery Theater · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost put it down during the first scene due to grotesque graphic violence, but it was so well written, I stuck with it.

Big mistake. With all the skill and ability to write something cool, Kring chooses to have the truly vile bad guy win. It turns the entire book into a flaming pile of garbage.

What makes me actually angry is the enormous gap between Kring's talent and his taste. When you read something like this, with such an awful outcome, you have to suspect the writer is as vile as his villains. If the book wasn't so damn good, I wouldn't care. If the author did their best, okay.

But Kring wasn't after that here. Whatever his goal was, it did not include great story telling focused on satisfying his paying customers. It's like going to a Santana concert and having him spend his time lecturing on the economy instead of playing.

What a waste. Scratch him off the list for good.

[Neil Arrowsmith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful book. No cohesion to it at all. Too many times the book jumped from scene to scene with no reasoning for the sudden change. Too many characters that are simply just names with no understanding of who the characters are and why they are there. Too many names from the characters past with no indication as to the link. This is the first of a trilogy. I certainly won’t be reading the remaining two books.

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Increíble. Me obsesioné desde la primera página y no lo pude soltar. Realmente muy bien construidos los personajes, a lo mejor el final no es tan bueno como el libro en si, pero vale muchísimo la pena.

[Kellie Vertetis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great writing but took too long to connect the characters and their storylines in a way that was slightly hard to follow. Fantastic and fast paced ending that I really enjoyed though. However you have to make your way through the first 2/3 of the book to get there.

[Alberto Valverde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Empieza que si, avanzas y parece que puede... pero no.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Kenzie Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. not worth it.

[Scotsmist · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very difficult to read. I kept losing interest and would return to it in-between other books, only to give up again and look for something else more exciting with an easier to follow narrative.

[Rich Stoehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first pages of Shift open on my birthday, two years from now, and the story reaches back from there to a time before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a time before I was born. Coincidence? Or is there some hidden meaning I should glean from this?

Shift is an ambitious novel in many ways, not the least of which is an attempt to create a new story with the JFK assassination, around which there are already more stories than there are myths about King Arthur. It's a big story, spanning nearly 50 years chronologically and incorporating many famous historical characters. J. Edgar Hoover, Timothy Leary, and (of course) Lee Harvey Oswald play significant parts, while there are brief appearances with Ronald Reagan, Jack Ruby, JFK himself, and even a quick mention of Saddam Hussein.

The thread linking all these big players and big events is a US government experiment into the mind-expanding properties of LSD, and forays into the realm of psychic and parapsychic abilities. The government project in Shift is known as the Gate of Orpheus, or simply Orpheus, and is a fictional extension of the MKULTRA program and others. The difference with Orpheus is that it worked - it produced geunine psychic abilities in at least one subject and possibly more, and that subject would go on to shape history as we know it.

Just trying to summarize all this makes me tired.

Another ambitious aspect of Shift is the extensive cast of characters, many of whom are introduced late in the story. Kring begins with Chandler Forrestal and Nazanin Haverman, who quickly become pawns in a game much larger than themselves, Agents Melchior and BC Querrey, government agents on opposite sides of the same coin, and he builds from there. Nazi doctors and sleeper agents and KGB and more - add in the appearances of historical figures and the cast of characters is seemingly limitless.

Tim Kring, in his first novel, definitely shot for the moon with Shift. As often happens with a really ambitious story, unfortunately, he falls short of the mark. The story is SO big that it often gets out of hand and hard to follow, though he does end up bringing it back in line. It is wide-reaching but lacks the focus I would have liked. As a result, many of the suspenseful elements come out flat and the characters aren't given enough treatment for us to care very much about them. Some scenes come off as overwritten, and would probably play better on the screen than they read on the page.

Though the ending of the book is satisfying, there are many, many threads of story left unresolved. Shift is the first of a planned series, so one hopes that there is resolution to come for these characters left hanging in the wind - but I have to say that I'm not sure I care enough to keep reading when the series continues.

The ending of Shift is intriguing and well-written, but it takes some effort to get there. The ideas are interesting and original, but some get lost in the morass of prose and plot (think X-Files on a bad day). Some of the characters have potential, but falter under the staggering weight of the story.

Still, it does start with my birthday. That can't be just a coincidence, right? Maybe I will give the next book a shot after all. We shall see.

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a Heroes fan, you are sure to recognize Tim Kring as the creator of the series. For some readers this knowledge will either hurt or help your perception of the book. As for me, I've never watched the show, so I went into this book without any preconceptions about Kring or Dale.

Shift begins in the year 2012. A fiery figure appears in the sky before several witnesses. Many say that the figure seemed to be searching for someone but couldn't find them. The book then jumps to the 1960s when Kennedy was President. Chandler Forrestal is a rather average young man whose interests only involve such tame things as becoming a professional student. He meets the sultry Naz in a bar & from there Chandler is thrown into a top secret project involving LSD- a project only known as Project Orpheus. When he escapes, Chandler is followed by a homicidal rogue agent known only as Melchior, a man who is willing to do anything to get what he wants. Anything. But why are they doing this? And how does this tie into the assassination of President Kennedy?

Drawing on the fascinating mystery behind the Kennedy assassination as well as actual government experiments on LSD, Kring comes up with a story premise that is truly intriguing. In addition to the cool premise of LSD superheroes & JFK, Kring also gives us several fantastic characters, including the beautiful Naz. Despite her somewhat negative (but understandably so) outlook on life, her pure charisma managed to shine throughout her brief but important interactions in the book. And the LSD trips? Those are the moments when the book really shines & takes off. You can't help but be interested in what is seen & done.

Where the book veers off course is through the all too frequent character shifts. While each shift has something interesting to add, at times it just interrupted the flow of the book. Occasionally I would find myself getting into the actions of a specific character (Naz & Melchior being my personal favorites), only to find myself getting thrown off when the action would jump to Chandler or one of the other characters in the book.

This didn't make the book bad, just a little harder to read at times & I can't help but think that a reader looking for more casual fare would be turned off by this book. This is no leisurely beach read- this is a book that has a lot going on & expects the reader to read & interact with it. But for those willing to put a little effort into this read, it is sure to be rewarding. In the end though, you'll probably either like this book or hate it- much like the response to Heroes.

(ARC provided by NetGalley)

[Adam Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shift is an alternate history novel written by the guy who made up Heroes the TV show and another author. Together they have written a solid readable novel with a great twist on a timeless question. If you could somehow stop JFK (or any public figure for that matter) being assassinated what would happen?

Many writers have written in this vain, some of the better offers including Stephen King’s 11.22.63 (on how to go back in time to stop the JFK assassination) and Stephen Fry’s Making History (on how to go back in time to kill Hitler). Despite it’s frankly lame title, Shift is also a good attempt at alternate history. Kring and Peck bring together several topics that make their novel the most ‘believable’ of the group I’ve read. It’s still quite out there that said.

The first 85% of Shift are unrelated to the JFK assassination and if the cover and this review didn’t mention it then it might have been a surprise. Regardless the way that the internal politics of the early sixties spy agencies play out are interesting and integral to the ‘world’ that the authors are attempting to build. A world of CIA, FBI, KGB, JFK and LSD. A world where one man can decide to kill another man in an attempt to bring about world war. A world we almost live in every day.

There are many allusions to conspiracies within the book but given its timeframe and setting they are fairly straight forward and clean cut. Like in 11.22.63, the authors have accepted that Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter on the day in question to make their novels easier to consume on a large scale. That could obviously be a good or a bad thing. Regardless Shift is a quick read and I got it for all of $10 so grab a copy.

Definitely worth your time.

4 stars.

For more reviews go to http://mrmasochistblog.wordpress.com/

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts out in the year 1963.

Chandler Forrestal was just an innocent victim. He met Naz, a nice woman who spiked his drink, only she didn’t slip him a roofie. Naz gave Chandler a bunch of LCD. As if things aren’t out of this world crazy enough when you are under the influence of mind altering drugs. Chandler Suddenly, Chandler starts experiencing some mental changes. Chandler believes that he has uncovered the true facts about President Kennedy’s assassination. Everyone is involved from…the Mafia, CIA, and FBI to the Russians. It is going to be one roller coaster ride.

Shift is book one of the Gates of Orpheus Trilogy. I have never read anything by either Mr. Kring or Mr. Peck. I thought this book had some good potential. I admit though that it started out really slowly for me. In fact I put this book down about a third of the way into it and walked away. It wasn’t because I didn’t like this book but because it too me a while to get into it. I wanted the book to move faster then it did. Once I got past the slow part, I found this book pretty interesting. If you like conspiracy theories then you may like this book and should check out this book but you better hurry before this book…Shifts out of bookstores.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

TV showrunner Tim Kring and his cowriter, the more experienced novelist Dale Peck, have produced an alternate history mashup of mind-control, LSD, conspiracy and the Kennedy assassination that goes on a bit too long with characters that showed promise for a while, until, well, the damn thing exhausted me. The authors beat the dead horse of a premise with a stick that got bloody about half way through. Given that we know the outcome of the story, the only reason to slog through would be the compelling characters and an intriguing premise. Both started well for me -- I liked the scion of the ruling class turned philosopher who was targeted by the CIA for the LSD experiment. I liked the malevolent renegade, the disillusioned FBI agent, even the mysterious Asian whore-runner. But not enough to care, when the threads of the plot got inevitably knotted into a ball, just how and why the strands got straightened out.

Oddly, Stephen King covered a lot of the same territory with some of the same problems (length, insistent trope-obsession) in his novel "11/22/63." He's better at it than Kring & Peck.

Pity, as I think this is the first of a trilogy. Oy.

[David Tendo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boy, was I disappointed, I had wanted to read this when I first saw it on the bookstore shelves, but it failed in a big way. I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't, is it contradictory to say that it felt like too much was going on, but at the same time nothing actually happens? I loved the TV series "Heroes" and I loved the concept of secret government experiments with mind-altering drugs, ESP and JFK assassination connections; so it should be a hit with me right? Wrong. The story made no sense at all and the writing style really confused the plot and action; as if Kring and Peck had tried too hard to be concise with their writing to give a more frenetic, energetic pace, but in so doing they seem to have missed out coherence; it was hard to see how any of the plot points actually connected. Another thing that annoyed me was that a lot of the elements of the "story" were just thrown into the mix because it seemed like a cool idea at that particular moment when they were writing, but it doesn't actually help or relate to the story.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up an advanced reading copy of this book at Comic-Con after seeing a panel with Tim Kring. I was initially interested because I'm a fan of Heroes but I wasn't sure what to expect from his novel. I'm glad I gave it a chance!

I liked the premise of this book - taking a series of historical events and adding a sci-fi twist to them - and for the most part I really enjoyed the writing style. I would have liked to have seen more of Chandler and the development of his LSD-induced powers and less of Melchior and agent Query but I'm assuming that their parts will be important for the rest of the trilogy and that is why so much time was devoted to them. Because the narrative switches points of view in each chapter it takes a while to get into the story and invested in the characters but about a third of the way through I was sufficiently sucked in. I'm definitely going to continue reading this series!

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bem... Sem dúvida, começou um pouco confuso, foi preciso avançar bastante na leitura (trata-se ainda de um livro relativamente extenso) para que o interesse começasse a despertar. Felizmente, foi uma boa recompensa ter continuado a ler! A partir de certa altura já estava completamente empolgado e cheguei ao fim com o coração aos saltos.

Infelizmente, a história do LSD e do Orfeu fazem deste livro algo mais parecido com ficção-científica. Quem sabe se é mesmo ficção?... Não deixa de ser uma excelente teoria da conspiração, muito bem romanceada, e apesar de tudo as últimas páginas conseguem dar a esta "ficção-científica" alguma veracidade.
Muito bom, a recomendar. Ainda vou ponderar nas "estrelas", e ainda irei escrever uma opinião mais completa e justa no blogue!

[Lizbuf · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing! I was really looking forward to reading this as the premise on the blurb sounded really interesting - it did not live up to expectation. Firstly, the blurb really misdirected the reader - this book was not about someone trying to prevent the assassination of JFK at all (well maybe a tiny bit at the end...!). Some of it the writing was so strange I found it hard to follow (maybe trying to invoke an LSD style haze in the reader's imagination?!?). The characters were unsympathetic and, with the exception of Melchior, shallow. Lastly, I still don't really understand who the burning boy at the start was?? Oh dear.

[All Mota · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm talking by my one opinion, for me the book was just good, sometimes was heavy and was a little difficult for me keep reading it, I like the story and the love story too, also I like the way that all the points are connected and how in a certain way leave the "?" even at the end of the book, but as I said it before, the book was too heavy sometimes and maybe was because two people wrote it, I read before books of two authors or four hands books but the duality and the union in the authors was solid and well structured but you can tell what was the chapters written by who, in this case I can note it.

Even that is a good book and definitely has a solid beginning for a saga.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

The library catalogue auto-flagged this for me; I have it set to tell me when new Tim Kring works are added, mostly to facilitate my viewing of the TV series.

I was immediately reminded of the Wild Cards character Mark Meadows. If I find myself short of other things to read (ha) and in the mood to take in some suspense fiction, I might give this a shot. But probably not any time soon.

[Alex Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Definitely This follows like the authors TV 'Heroes', lots of promise at the start, yet less tan a third in that opportunity is wasted in a mess of plots that don't link together (CIA drug experiments with prostitutes, time travel, missing nuke in 60's Cuba, defecting KGB, rogue CIA) that have something to do with the Kennedy assassination By the end the plot makes little overall sense. I think they were (and am by the looks of it) planning for a series of books, but like 'Heroes' forgot that each book/series has to be able to carry a story by itself.

[Nathan Nipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a fan of alternate history, I was intrigued by this book(which more like a secret history of the JFK assassination) With a quirk cast of characters, plenty of drugs and international espionage, this is one thrilling ride.

This has been billed as the first part of a trilogy. finishing the book, it does make sense. This book does leave a fair number of plot threads loose.

A note about the audio edition: This audio book is narrated by Robert Forster. Excellent voice for this story. I would look for other books read by this guy.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of Heroes, I was interested to learn that Tim Kring had collaborated on a new book. Shift takes place in the 1960s and focuses on the government's experiments with LSD. The story built slowly, but once the authors had laid the foundation, I was unable to put this book down, eager to see how the threads were woven together.

I received a copy of Shift via NetGalley

[Jeannine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The best thing I can say about this book is that I finished it. I kept my promise to myself and finished it. But I'll share this: some parts of the book were easier to read than others. I eventually gave myself permission to continue reading even if something was confusing. Some parts, or chapters, I liked, while some tried too hard to shock or impress me, the reader.

The best thing I can say about this story is, "Hallelujah, I finished it!"

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't quite put my finger on it as to why, but I was slightly disappointed with this JFK assassination based thriller. The characters were a good mix of good and bad, there were one or two plot progressions that kept me invested in the story, and the last 50 or so pages were all that a thriller should be, but overall it was just okay. I am a huge fan of Dale Peck's writing (he co-wrote this with Tim Kring), and it was easy to see his influence, but it did not save it for me.

[Mark Zadroga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read an advance copy of Tim Kring's (creator of Heros) debut novel 'Shift'. It's an interesting take on the CIA early LSD experiments and the JFK assaination. Great plot twists and characters. But I found myself wishing Kring had picked a subject that hadn't been trod over again and again over the last 4 decades. Still, it's a great 1st effort.