Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #178124 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
A thrilling sci-fi novel set in a believeable - and terrifying - near future...Hybrids is the winning entry to the HarperCollins nationwide new author competition with SAGA Magazine. Johnny Online and Kestrella are hybrids - victims of "Creep", a pandemic sweeping the country which causes sufferers to merge with items of technology when over-exposed to their use. Kestrella persuades a wary Johnny to help her find her missing mother, but the Gene Police have other plans for him...Powerful, compelling, and narrated alternately by Johnny and Kes, it questions our human dependence on technology, and our reactions in the face of nationwide panic. This was the outstanding winner of the Children's Book Writing Competition run in conjunction with SAGA Magazine. Orange-prize winning author Helen Dunmore -- one of the judges -- says: "The writing is sharp, the dialogue good, and the action pacey and page-turning. But there's a real depth to this story, too. Like all good fiction it makes the reader see the world in a different light."

Customer Reviews

Brilliant page turner
This is a gripping and edgy story that leaves the reader questioning the future for ourselves and our relationship with machines.

I was entranced by the romantic plot that wraps around you in its complexity drawing you into political and social issues.

A wonderful book - I would highly recommend it.

Hybrids Triumphs!
I finished reading this only five minutes ago, and just had to say how wonderful I thought it was.

Normally I opt for your standard, run of the mill detective tomes...but I fancied something a little different. And boy did I get it!

Initially I wasn't too sure that the book could hold my interest. Sci Fi/Fantasy tends to leave me cold; but 'Hybrids' had me from the end of the first chapter.

The synopsis says it all, so I won't repeat it here. I'll just say that David Thorpe grabs your attention with a refreshingly punchy style...and won't let it go. 'Hybrids' ignites the imagination, raises questions and makes you see the 21st century in a new - often eerie, often amusing -light.

It's an intelligent, fabulously structured novel; with multi faceted characters that are completely tangible. I eagerly await the second in the trilogy!

Techno children
As a child of the techno generation you really feel you can relate to the dependence on technology that is portrayed in this book. okay its a bit of an exaggeration from my addiction to my iPod and MSN Messenger but the points made by the story are made succinctly and clearly yet without appearing preachy or repetitive, a rarity in literature in general let alone a book aimed at young people. It makes many points that anyone in the modern western world can relate to: social breakdown, fractured society, corruption, drug companies and the totalitarian state. The most striking message which i think any reader would say is that it makes you think about the consequences of the actions of humanity and how one day we could very well be experiencing its effects. At a time when the world is in the grips of an AIDS pandemic the story cannot ring more true. This will definitely appeal to all ages as it manages to combine a love story with a political parallel with such impressive ease. Like all the best modern entertainment from harry potter to the simpsons it works on many levels making it a page turner for young and old. The characters are well formed and you get a real sense of their background and also most importantly how the terrible events of their lives make them feel. Although the events described are fictitious the book seems make every important event seem like another Berlin wall or V.E day. with the current state of world affairs this book couldn't be better timed. bring on the sequel.