Boiling Point

Boiling Point is Tom Merritt's alternate reality novel available in paperback from Lulu and Amazon.com, as an e-book for the Kindle or a PDF reader (676.8 kB), or as an 11-part audio book read by the author. Veronica Belmont interviewed Merritt about his experience writing and publishing the book on an episode of Mahalo Daily.
== Synopsis ==
When heated political debate, burning social divisions, and economic pressures have fanned the flames of malcontent for generations as talking heads vent steam and the states are no longer united, what might bring the great American melting pot to a boil, and how might Steve from Austin or Faye in Denver respond? In this 1997 revision of his 1996 Creative Commons classic, Tom Merritt uses his talents in journalism and knowledge of technology to explore the heights, depths, and breadth of character in America at her darkest hour.
== Structure ==
Merritt depicts an America ripping apart at the seams from the vantage point of individuals throughout the country as they experience the nation's worst nightmares playing out in realistic scenarios. From near-prescient accounts of disasters to humanization of politicians and insight about "people we all know", Merritt's method of storytelling is comparable to that of Victor Hugo, Tom Clancy, and Frank Herbert.
== Content Warnings ==
The novel features some characters who use R-rated language.
== See Also ==
* Tom Merritt
* United Moon Colonies, a novel by Tom Merritt
* 140novel, a twitter book by the Buzz Out Loud hosts and Leo Laporte
* The Sword and Laser
== On the Web ==
* Video interview on Mahalo Daily
* Boiling Point at Google Books
* Introduction to characters and setting on the Alternative History Web Ring
* Tom responds to "So, Mr. Merritt, Do you Really Think..."
* Full text at Archive.org (676.8 kB PDF)
* Paperback at Amazon.com
* Kindle Edition at Amazon.com
* Author page on Amazon.com
* Publication home page at Lulu
* Author storefront at Lulu
* Write the Wikipedia article
== Reader Critiques and Endorsements ==
== Audio Book ==
The audiobook of Boiling Point read by the author is available from archive.org free of charge as "open source audio". It splits the book into 11 parts. You can listen online or download each part from the table below. To save to disk, right-click or control-click a link and select "Download Linked File" from the menu.
Part	64 kbps M3U	64 kbps MP3	Ogg Vorbis	96 kbps MP3
1 	Stream 	12.7 MB 	15.5 MB 	19.1 MB
2 	Stream 	15.4 MB 	18.3 MB 	23.1 MB
3 	Stream 	15.8 MB 	18.0 MB 	23.7 MB
4 	Stream 	14.1 MB 	15.7 MB 	21.2 MB
5 	Stream 	14.4 MB 	15.8 MB 	21.7 MB
6 	Stream 	16.3 MB 	17.7 MB 	24.5 MB
7 	Stream 	14.5 MB 	15.6 MB 	21.7 MB
8 	Stream 	16.5 MB 	18.2 MB 	24.8 MB
9 	Stream 	21.5 MB 	24.4 MB 	32.2 MB
10 	Stream 	13.7 MB 	15.1 MB 	20.5 MB
11 	Stream 	7.2 MB 	8.2 MB 	10.8 MB
Feed available here -- http://boilingpointbook.wordpress.com/
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