Hammers by Ron Dakron (1997, Hardcover)

Synopsis
A young woman geneticist combines human and hammerhead shark DNA, but a slight error has her injecting herself with the shark genetic code. Man becomes shark, perhaps, in this novel of hubris and power and a shark's eternal quest for fresh squid.

Nico is a geneticist working to create a serum derived from shark fetuses that represses shock symptoms in humans. Eager to test her serum on a real person, Nico injects herself with the mixture and morphs into a hammerhead shark.

Key Details
Author:	Ron Dakron
Language:	English
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	0930773489
ISBN-13:	9780930773489

Size
Length:	251 pages
Height:	9.3 in
Width:	6 in
Thickness:	1 in
Weight:	19.2 oz

Publisher's Note
A young woman geneticist combines human and hammerhead shark DNA, but a slight error has her injecting herself with the shark genetic code. Man becomes shark, perhaps, in this novel of hubris and power and a shark's eternal quest for fresh squid.

Hammers is a comic novel set in a modern biotech city. It follows five characters as they mutate and fight for dominance, sex, and a reliable source of fresh squid. Enjoy a classic transformation tale and a savage look at the brutal power of modern genetics.

Industry Reviews
Seattle geneticist Nico begins to morph into a hammerhead shark after accidentally injecting herself with a potent batch of DNA home-brew in Dakron's over-the-top parody of The Fly. Her brother, narrator Zave, watches in perplexed horror as Nico's transformation starts with a craving for fish, then erupts into more dangerous appetites. An odd attraction between Nico and Zave's girlfriend complicates matters, as do the group of junkies who inadvertently inject themselves with a supply of Nico's genetic potion. Dakron keeps the story moving along at a sprightly (not to say manic) clip, hindered only by a stream of juvenile, self-referential verbiage about the plot. Like his fellow shark-fancier (and epigraph-source) the Comte de Lautr?amont, Dakron tends to exclaim rather than narrate ("She yanks out a molar! Without even an ouch yeek!"), but patient readers of his third novel (after infra and Newt) will discover a writer with a fine ear and plenty of gusto whose worst enemy is his own experimentalist affectations. (Oct.)
Lopate