HOW LIKE GOD [Paperback]

Rob Lewis, an ordinary computer programmer with a wife and two kids, becomes something extraordinary one day after he wakes up and discovers he can read--and control--other people's minds. It's an ability most people dream of having, but for Rob it quickly destroys his life. There is a death, injuries, the threat of warping the lives of his children. Rob flees to New York where, homeless and destitute, he contacts Edwin Barbaross of the National Institutes of Health. Together they travel to Uzbekistan, where Rob will face both the source of his powers and his own inner demons. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Clough's (An Impossible Summer, Walker, 1992) hardcover debut offers a suburban fantasy in which Rob Lewis wakes up one morning with the ability to read?and, ultimately, influence?the emotions of people around him. Frightened, he leaves home, drifting aimlessly through New York City until he meets microbiologist Edwin Barbarossa, to whom he turns for help. Clough explores power, control, and friendship in a well-crafted psychological study. Recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Virginia computer programmer Rob Lewis, a devoted house-and- family man, wakes one morning having acquired the power not only to read minds but also to influence them. At first he uses the power playfully, covering absences at work, helping his wife Julianne up the corporate ladder. But Rob's toddler twins, Davey and Angela, soon begin to talk and reason like tiny adults: Evidently the power leaks out from under their father's conscious control. So Rob, terrified by the potential for evil, and facing the destruction of his children's lives, abandons his family and becomes a derelict on the streets of New York. Later, after an accidental meeting, microbiologist Edwin Barbarossa gives Rob hope that he could learn to control the unconscious operation of the power. Then Rob receives a psychic summons to an ancient archeological site in Uzbekistan. And here, unfortunately, science fiction collapses into crackpot fantasy. Rob's summoner is immortal Gilgamesh, the legendary king of ancient Uruk. Yep. He gave Rob the power. Why? Don't ask. Why, of all people, choose Rob? Just don't ask. An imaginative and sometimes intriguing yarn, best when it focuses on family or science, elsewhere increasingly erratic and implausible. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

When a Washington, D.C. software developer wakes up one morning able to read--and influence--the hearts and minds of everyone around him, he expects to enjoy his godlike power. But soon his power shows its darker side, driving him away from his family and onto the streets of New York City, where he explores the depths of despair and degradation.

Brenda W. Clough spent much of her childhood overseas, courtesy of the U.S. government. She has lived in Laos, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Germany. She returned to Pittsburgh, PA to earn a degree in English/Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University in 1977.

Several years working as a meek mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newsletter enabled her to write a fantasy novel, THE CRYSTAL CROWN (1984). She has also written THE DRAGON OF MISHBIL (1985), THE REALM BENEATH (1986), and THE NAME OF THE SUN (1988) Her childrens novel, AN IMPOSSUMBLE SUMMER (1992) is set in her own house in Virginia, where she lives in a cottage at the edge of a forest.

A number of short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, the most recent being HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD (1996, Charles Sheffield, ed.), and THE SANDMAN BOOK OF DREAMS (1996, Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer, eds.).

Her latest novel, HOW LIKE A GOD, was published by Tor Books in 1997. In its review Locus Magazine says, Clough brings myth and science and plain human existence (complex as all get-out) together for what proves to be a fine blend, and a very good read, offering physical, psychological, and metaphysical insights into the human condition, along with the sometimes delightfully outlandish action that drives the best of pulp fiction.

And the New York Times Book Review says, Ms. Clough has an appealingly cheeky imagination.

Her next novel, DOORS OF DEATH AND LIFE, will appear in 2000. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.