Abandon in Place (Hardcover)

So we get SF stories--lengthened into novels--like Abandon In Place, by Jerry Oltion, where a few mentions of quantum foam, and a cover-painting showing a lunar lander touching down on the moon, make the thing look like a hard-science novel. But it's not. It's perilously close to wish-fulfillment exercises like The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything, by John D. MacDonald, or Time And Again, by Jack Finney. And those are fantasy novels. The exhilirating effect of reading Oltion's hard-SF ghost-story--his just-imagine, gung-ho, dreamy look at how psychic powers might perhaps refuel humankind's desire for space exploration, with gifted individuals conjuring up moon-worthy spacecraft that can be ridden through the eternal vacuum as long as they don't fade away--is the same as a wish-fulfillment masterpiece like Grimwood's Replay.

Is there SF here, though? Well, I'll trust that the technical details regarding NASA's Apollo space program are well-researched and right. But the crux of the book--the author's passion for concocting this bizarre story--is very science-fictional. Oltion--using metaphor, if not outright mysticism, if not outright gobbledygook--is just pointing out that we will make it to the moon, again, and beyond, if we as a species want it bad enough. This concern has been blowing through SF for ages, as I see it; I flash back to Ray Bradbury's intro to Perry Rhodan #18, where he pleads with readers to remain enthusiastic about manned space flight.

As a novel--not an award-winning novella--Abandon In Place does roam in too many directions. Power-mad dictators who learn psi powers, not to dream up rockets, but to tyrannize the world; an ultra-liberal Pope who advises our main characters--Rick and Tessa, astronauts turned minor deities with vast mental powers fueled by public opinion--on matters of faith and world politics; King Arthur conjured from the aether as a new/old symbol of hope; the world's entire population learning how to tap the paranormal after the example has been set; a glimpse of the afterlife and the strange essences that inhabit it; oh, and car chases, daring escapes, and some spy games. Wow. Take a breath. It is definitely too much...but it's worth the experience.

Not a perfect book, because it is as unwieldy as it is compelling. Fascinating and frustrating. Better than some of its predecessors, like McQuay's The Nexus, but outclassed by Stranger In A Strange Land (there are numerous references to Heinlein's works, in Oltion's book). Well worth reading if you don't mind an SF experience that may not be one at all, while it addresses a fundamental concern of the genre.

Rick persuades the NASA brass to allow him to travel with the phantom ship, which takes him to the shuttle piloted by his girlfriend, Tessa McClain. Rick, Tessa, and astronomer-astronaut Yoshiko Sugano ignore their superiors and ride the ghost ship to the Moon with the Russians providing mission control support from earth. Rick soon learns that if he fears that the space program will end, the ship remains solid, but if he believes that the space program will recover, the ship begins to vanish. The team lands on the Moon and successfully returns to Earth only to have the CIA interrogate them to learn more about psychic powers.

ABANDON IN PLACE is a full-length novelization of an award-winning novella. The story line is exciting as Jerry Oltion uses New Age elements combined with scientific information tat tuns into an excellent paranormal tale. The novel is at its best during the space scenes, but loses thrust when the CIA enters the picture. Though the NASA leaders seem stilted, fans of preternatural science fiction will relish this weird to the moon and back thriller.

Harriet Klausner