PSI/Net - Hardcover

Williams, Billy Dee; MacGregor, Rob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312867662 ISBN 13: 9780312867669

Publisher: Tor Books, 1999

Synopsis

On November 12, 1995 the CIA issued a report admitting that military and intelligence services had used psychics for spying or "remote viewing". Project Stargate, as it was called, is the premise of this nerve-jangling thriller.

Former Air Force Major Trent Calloway just wants to forget about his past, especially the tragedy that changed his life when he was involved in a government remote viewing project. With his marriage ruined in the aftermath of his psychic spying, he wanders the Southwest, occasionally guiding river rafting tours. And then suddenly his painful past returns and threatens to damage him again.

He finds out that he had been drugged during his remote viewing sessions and that the drug, now years later, is causing ever increasing side-effects in himself and the other government psychic spies he worked with - and that their psychic abilities are still expanding at frightening rates.

He realizes that the unknown drug he and the other psychic spies unwillingly took has bound them all together in a deadly psychic nexus, a "PSI net", that has trapped Callaway, who must now fight for his life and his sanity as he struggles for the security of the United States and its people.

About this title

Review

Billy Dee Williams is a modern Renaissance man. An accomplished stage, television, and screen actor, he's best known to science fiction fans as Lando Calrissian of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He's also a painter whose works have been shown across the U.S. and are part of the National Gallery's permanent collection. Now he has teamed up with Edgar award winner Rob MacGregor (Prophecy Rock and many others) to write PSI/Net, an account of psychic warfare set against the background of an America facing a possible schism.

In reality, the CIA revealed in 1995 that it performed experiments in "remote viewing"--psychic spying. This is the jumping-off point for the novel. Trent Calloway is a (fictional) retired member of the project whose quiet life as a river-rafting tour guide is disrupted by a vision of Washington D.C. destroyed by a nuclear bomb. Soon he's swept into a secret war against the Freedom Nation--separatists tied to the militia movement who want to carve their own country out of the western United States. Calloway labors to psychically observe Freedom Nation's operatives and try to learn their plans, but Freedom Nation retains its own psychics--also former CIA operatives--whose job is to conceal their campaign and disrupt Calloway's efforts. He and his enemies play a mental game of cat and mouse using remote viewing, precognition, and mind control that becomes more deadly with each chapter.

A tightly focused novel that spans just five days, PSI/Net is firmly grounded in real-world issues such as race relations and federalism. Because the settings and conflicts are so realistic and familiar, the ESP elements become entirely believable--they slide right in like puzzle pieces that complete the whole, no more outlandish than helicopters or Secret Service agents. Anyone looking for page-turning suspense with a subtle science fiction twist will definitely enjoy this energetic story. --J.B. Peck

About the Author

Billy Dee Williams is a renowned stage, television and film actor most noted for his roles in The Empire Strikes Backs, Return of the Jedi, and Lady Sings the Blues. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Rob MacGregor is the Edgar Award winning author of Prophecy Rock and many other novels. He lives in Boynton Beach, Florida

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312867662
• ISBN 13: 9780312867669
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256