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Transformer #3
Preserver
On the strange, urban world Teragon, Demsing is being hunted. A talented fixer with unusual abilities, he sets out to find out who is looking for him, and who he really is.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
253 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
33 people want to read
About the author
M.A. Foster
20 books28 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
US writer, former data-systems analyst and sequentially a Russian linguist and ICBM launch-crew commander to the US Air Force; he is also a semiprofessional photographer. After some poetry, released privately as Shards from Byzantium (coll 1969 chap) and The Vaseline Dreams of Hundifer Jones (coll 1970 chap), he began to publish sf with the ambitious Ler trilogy about a race of Supermen created by Genetic Engineering whose social structure is built around a form of line marriage here called a braid.
The Gameplayers of Zan (1977), a very long novel formally constructed on the model of an Elizabethan tragedy, describes a period of climactic tension between the ler and the rest of humanity, and is set on Earth. The Warriors of Dawn (1975), published first but set later, is a more conventional Space Opera in which a human male and a ler female are forced to team up to try to solve a complexly ramifying problem of interstellar piracy. The Day of the Klesh (1979) brings the ler and the eponymous race of humans together on a planet where they must solve their differences.
The Morphodite/Transformer sequence which followed comprises The Morphodite (1981), Transformer (1983) and Preserver (1985), all three assembled as The Transformer Trilogy (omni 2006), and similarly uses forms of meditative Shapeshifting to buttress complex plots, though in this case the alternately male or female, revolution-fomenting, protagonist dominates the tale as assassin, trickster and Superman.
Waves (1980) rather recalls Stanisław Lem's Solaris (1961) in a tale of political intrigue on a planet whose ocean is intelligent. The four novellas collected in Owl Time (coll 1985) are told in challengingly various modes, and derive strength from their mutual contrast.
More recently, the author has been involved with the writing of storylines for Acme comics http://www.acmecomics.com/node/69.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
US writer, former data-systems analyst and sequentially a Russian linguist and ICBM launch-crew commander to the US Air Force; he is also a semiprofessional photographer. After some poetry, released privately as Shards from Byzantium (coll 1969 chap) and The Vaseline Dreams of Hundifer Jones (coll 1970 chap), he began to publish sf with the ambitious Ler trilogy about a race of Supermen created by Genetic Engineering whose social structure is built around a form of line marriage here called a braid.
The Gameplayers of Zan (1977), a very long novel formally constructed on the model of an Elizabethan tragedy, describes a period of climactic tension between the ler and the rest of humanity, and is set on Earth. The Warriors of Dawn (1975), published first but set later, is a more conventional Space Opera in which a human male and a ler female are forced to team up to try to solve a complexly ramifying problem of interstellar piracy. The Day of the Klesh (1979) brings the ler and the eponymous race of humans together on a planet where they must solve their differences.
The Morphodite/Transformer sequence which followed comprises The Morphodite (1981), Transformer (1983) and Preserver (1985), all three assembled as The Transformer Trilogy (omni 2006), and similarly uses forms of meditative Shapeshifting to buttress complex plots, though in this case the alternately male or female, revolution-fomenting, protagonist dominates the tale as assassin, trickster and Superman.
Waves (1980) rather recalls Stanisław Lem's Solaris (1961) in a tale of political intrigue on a planet whose ocean is intelligent. The four novellas collected in Owl Time (coll 1985) are told in challengingly various modes, and derive strength from their mutual contrast.
More recently, the author has been involved with the writing of storylines for Acme comics http://www.acmecomics.com/node/69.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 22, 2017
Weaker than the first 2 in the series. My series review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
April 8, 2015
reviews.metaphorosis.com
3.5 stars
On the strange, urban world Teragon, Demsing is being hunted. A talented fixer with unusual abilities, he sets out to find out who is looking for him, and who he really is.
Preserver is possibly the best of the Morphodite trilogy. It doesn't have the social scope of The Morphodite, nor the singular focus of Transformer, but it's more effective than the other books at capturing one man's curiosity about himself.
Foster takes some shortcuts, but most of the book is a logical, step by step process of discovery. For about 80% of the story, the book essentially functions as a standalone adventure; it's only in the final chapters that prior history really raises its head.
When he gets to it, Foster does a good job of reeling in the Morphodite's convoluted past. Strangely, he introduces a truly ex machina element that, while intriguing, is not a good fit to the story in the length given to it. It might have made a good separate novel, but seems essentially a copout in the context of the trilogy's key concepts. The wrapup of the story is similarly brief. It's a shame, given the book's good qualities.
The series overall is appealing in concept, less successful in execution. In book 1, Foster stumbles a bit in setting out an interesting society, and an idea for altering it. In book 2, he cuts the story short and provides a paste-on ending. This final book is the best written of the set, but again falls short at the end. If you've read books 1 and 2, this book is a not-necessary but enjoyable extension. If you haven't, you can probably figure out what's going on without much trouble, and without substantially altering your enjoyment of the first two, should you read them later.
Should you read them at all? They're decent books with a good idea, and elements are well done. That said, there are plenty of books that are as good at what this trilogy does, and some that are better. If the blurbs intrigue you, go to it. If you're uncertain, it may be better to keep looking.
September 16, 2015
Too much chatty dialogue and a very drastic conclusion where it could had been extended at least for another chapter rather than such an abrupt ending. Disappointing, considering how good the last volume before this was.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews