Blood Music

Expanded from a short story, this novel adds a bit before and a whole lot after. Nominated for many awards and on several best lists.

The short story is basically genetic science body horror, and works really well. It was also nominated for several awards, and won the Nebula for best novelette. What the characters verbally remember in the short story is expanded into narrative in the story - I think it was better as a flashback. The story ending is pretty final, and this occurs less than halfway through the full novel.

After this point, the author moves on to what is essentially a new novel, and this starts a little slowly. New characters are brought in, which irritated other reviewers. Sticking with it was rewarding, though.

There are a lot of similarities between the second half and a recent read, The Last Canadian. Both books have an active Soviet Union that tries to take advantage - a scenario that is less dated today. I've seen the ending compared to Steven King also. I liked it, especially the last few pages.

I liked the short story better - it was published in Analog Science Fiction, June of 1983, which is available on the web after a cursory search. I really liked the book, though - a solid 4 stars out of 5.