Tripler

Tripler
By Neil Vogler
(5/5 stars)

This book features a unique premise:  what if you could split yourself into three--basically creating two clones of yourself?  Would you just use it to get all your chores done?  Would you use it to fulfill all your kinky desires?  Or would you use it to take over the world?  In Tripler we see pretty much all the possibilities in what is a pretty taut thriller.

The basic setup reminded me of Blade Runner a little.  Harry is a "Tracker" who hunts down rogue Triplers, like the Harrison Ford character hunted down rogue androids.  The similarities pretty much end there.  In large part because Harry himself becomes a Tripler, though probably in Ridley Scott's fifteen versions of Blade Runner is one where Deckard is an android.  Harry is kept alive and given some medication to keep him from going rogue by the British government.  If you want to compare it to another movie/book it's like Harry is James Bond and the rogue Triplers are SMERSH/SPECTRE; he even has his own numerical designation of 00.

Except the assignment soon gets a lot tougher once he encounters the enemy agent Osprey, who vows to destroy everyone and everything Harry loves.  As Osprey wreaks havoc, Harry is forced to question pretty much everything.  And there's a nice twist at the end that promises a lot of mayhem for Book 2.

Overall this is a taut, well-written thriller that will keep you guessing.  Even if you're not a fan of science fiction, the sci-fi elements are not so overwhelming that readers of Ian Fleming or Robert Ludlum couldn't enjoy it.  Other than the idea of Tripling, it's a pretty ordinary setting; there are no flying cars or robots or aliens or anything like that.  So if you want a thriller with a twist, give this a try.

That is all.