Product Description
"One of the most intellectually exciting of all Ian Watson's books."--The Times
"An science fiction writer of powerful intellect-the natural successor to H. G. Wells."--The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
"A marvelous and moving piece of speculation on the nature of UFOs. A supremely skillful narrative...A tremendous sense of conviction."--Spectator
An unusually brilliant and mind-stretching metaphysical quest from one of the most exciting talents in science fiction.
John Deacon uses hypnosis to help his patients reach altered states of consciousness. One of his subjects, Michael Peacocke, is unusually susceptible and in their first session together, Michael recalls a "close encounter"--in both senses of the term--with an alien. Deacon, skeptical of the story, dismisses it as an adolescent sexual fantasy. But then strange things begin to happen and Deacon is forced to reconsider. Could UFOs be symbols projected from the collective unconscious? Are they messages from the biomatrix? Does the mind have the ability to project objects and people that are physically real...yet somehow illusory?
A wonderfully fascinating, mind-bending voyage.
Ian Watson is author of Martian Inca, The Embedding, and The Jonah Kit.
About the Author
Ian Watson was born in 1943. He lectured in Tanzania and Tokyo and taught Future Studies at Birmingham Polytechnic. He began publishing sf with 'Roof Garden Under Saturn' for New Worlds in 1969 but it was with the publication of The Embedding in 1973 that he really established himself as a writer of rare power and vision.
